The Ballad of Ianto Jones
by a-silver-story
Summary: Jack returns to Earth a thousand years after the events of CoE and discovers a chilling mystery surrounding the year 2009, the death of Ianto Jones and the life of Gwen Cooper.
1. Keeping Promises

A thousand years had lasted a lot longer than Captain Jack Harkness had wanted it to. He still counted in Earth years – what good was a promise of a thousand years if you were counting on different time scales? – and now the day had come to return to that planet that could be nothing more than a graveyard to him.

Planets and colonies and space stations whose names he couldn't remember had housed him over the millennia. Constantly he was moving: always running, staring straight ahead and never looking back. It was a trick he'd learnt from the Doctor. He would look back this once, though. Just for Him.

Now Jack stood on the same grassy mound he had all that time ago, surveying the city landscape of a Cardiff that wasn't his. Buildings made of glass rose miles into the air, and little dots he assumed were cars zoomed around the air in orderly lines, silhouetted against the purple and red sunset.

Jack had loved Earth sunsets. He remembered that. The colours, the lights, the clouds – the way everything looked so _alive_. The only time human beings would really look to the sky and wonder at its true beauty.

It wouldn't just be humans anymore, though. That city would be teeming with hundreds of different species. Races, colours, multi-limbed, vertebrates, invertebrates ...

A noise pulled him out of his reverie. A voice. Female.

"Er ... excuse me?"

He turned, and let himself smile softly. Friendly. Non-threatening.

"Er ... hi ... yes ..." She was wearing a black fitted suit with a pencil skirt, black shirt and silver tie. The crest on the breast pocket of her jacket was also silver, but half concealed by an electronic clipboard. Jack didn't need to see the whole crest to know who this woman was working for.

"You ... um ..." she fumbled. "Your arrival on this planet is unauthorised. Under the Rules and Regulations laid down by the Earth branch of the Torchwood Institute, I have to take you for visa clearance. By ... er ... by force if necessary."

"Okay." said Jack simply. English felt strange in his ears, but he knew from that simple two-syllable word his accent in the language remained the same.

"Could you come with me? Oo!" she turned, a thought striking her. "Are you alone?"

"Always." replied Jack, averting his gaze.

"Okay. Well ... my name's Tanya. If you could just come with me and we'll get you back to Torchwood and out to whatever business you have in no time. What did you say your purpose was on this planet, again?"

"Me? Just sightseeing." he said, forcing frivolity into his voice that he didn't feel.

Tanya had started walking, and Jack began to follow her but something in the middle-distance caught his eye. There was a wall, free-standing and in the middle of the field, made out of carved white marble. The word "Torchwood" was carved eloquently across the base so large he could see it from where he stood.

The Captain had shivered when the woman had said "Torchwood" so casually before, and he shivered again when he saw the word carved into the stone. His instincts told him to go and investigate, so he stopped her and asked permission. She gave a curt nod and led him towards it.

"The Torchwood Memorial." she explained as they approached. Suitably, half of it was covered in writing. The other half was waiting to have the names of the dead scratched in. Beside each of the names were little holes for the living to leave flowers as a mark of respect. Only the most recently deceased had blooms protruding next to them. The rest were just names. No one had faces to put to them anymore.

Tanya had crouched by some beautiful wildflowers, picking off a blue head and arranging the petals. Jack looked away as she slotted the stem into one of the holes. He moved farther down the list of names he didn't recognize, stopping when he got to ones he did. There were no features that he could recall of them anymore, but the names still haunted him. He traced his fingers over the letters "Suzie Costello". The next name triggered a memory, and Jack smiled as a cockney voice said in his ear: "Yeahhhh that was me. I'm a twat.". Owen Harper. Next was a woman. "I hope it wasn't an accident with a toaster." – Toshiko Sato.

The next name made his breath catch in his chest. This face he remembered. This face haunted him, with tears and pain and anguish. The name was embossed in gold, whereas the others were left plain. The font was slightly larger, too. Jack slowly traced the individual letters, closing his eyes and letting that beautiful face, with that dark hair and those pained eyes, swarm his mind. Gwen Cooper.

_"You can't just run, Jack!" _shouted the face.

"I'm still running, Gwen." he muttered.

Tanya was stood beside him again. "A lot of people are drawn to that name." she said. "A great woman."

"Yeah. I knew her." said Jack. He noticed the incredulous look he got from Tanya. "Time Traveller." he explained – it generally went down better than 'man-who-cannot-die'.

"No _way_!" she exclaimed, her professional demeanour slipping. Jack smiled and turned back to the wall. He read the names again. His team. The first team that was his – and the last. Suzie, Toshiko, Owen, Gwen ... NO! Something ... no! ... there was something wrong. Heartbreakingly wrong. Missing. Gone. Forgotten. _He_ wasn't there. His name was gone. Jack stared at the wall like it was hiding it from him. It was stealing the name from him on purpose. His gut wrenched as he searched through his head, desperate to prove that even if Torchwood had lost Him, Jack hadn't.

Yin Yang, Yang Yin, Yankee, Yank, Yacht ... no ... yan ... yan ... yan ... no. Yanto. Ianto.

"Where's Ianto?" Jack rasped. Tanya frowned at him, then moved and pointed at a name.

"Ianto Williams. Son of Gwen Cooper, co-founder of the new Institute in 2039."

Jack shook his head. Tanya moved quite a bit further down the wall.

"Ianto Spencer? Named after Ianto Williams, joined Torchwood in 3001. Currently in the Criminal Stasis Chambers of Torchwood Sigma Four, but he's being switched off next week. They've already carved his name into the wall."

"No ... Ianto. The first Ianto. My Ianto. Died July 9th, 2009, 21:53. Thames House, London. Alien virus."

The facts Jack had tried to push from his mind spilled out as if they'd only been put there yesterday. He flinched as Tanya touched his arm.

"You're a Time Traveller. Maybe something was changed?"

Jack nodded silently, but knew it wasn't true.

"Come on." she encouraged. "We'll get you back to Torchwood and get your visa processed. Then we can get Research to run a scan for your missing man. What was the name?"

"Ianto."

"His surname?"

Surname ... His name ... Ianto. Ianto Johnson, Jackson, Jacobs ... no ... John, Jack, Jacob ... The Name! There was coffee! Jack remembered there was coffee! ... and neat and tidy ... this is Ianto ... Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Jones. Jones Ianto Jones. This is Ianto Jones. He looks good in a suit.

"Jones. His name was Ianto Jones. And he looked good in a suit."

Tanya jotted the name down, ignoring the suit comment. She then pressed a button on her wrist. Jack blinked and the world had changed.

They had teleported to a small white, rectangular room, with a desk and a computer. Like a reception. A young, pale, blond man wearing the male counterpart of Tanya's suit was sat behind the desk. Jack gathered that the suits must be the standard Torchwood uniform now. He let himself smile. _He_ - Ianto – would have approved.

"Check him in, Josh." Tanya said to the blond. Josh nodded, then smiled at Jack.

"Good evening, sir. Just a couple of questions."

"Fire away." replied the Captain, turning on his most reassuring smile. Tanya disappeared in a teleport flash and Josh took an electronic pen and poised it ready above a tablet.

"Name?"

"Cap'n Jack Harkness."

"Purpose on Earth, aka SOL: 3?"

"Time Traveller. Sightseeing."

"Relatives currently residing on the planet?"

"Not that I know of, but back in about 2009 I know I had a daughter. So who knows?"

"Okay ... have you passed through Torchwood before?"

"I used to work for Torchwood."

This earnt him a raised eyebrow, but just in time the computer pinged its agreement with Jack's statement. Josh scanned the document that had appeared on the HoloScreen of his desk computer. "Time Traveller, you say?" he smiled, turning the projection so that Jack could see. His photograph was there, plus a fake birth-date and the status "Honourably Discharged".

Jack smiled again, not sure if he meant it. Josh turned his screen back towards himself.

"Will you require hospitality while on this planet? All ex-Torchwood Operatives are entitled to free use of the Institute's hospitality suites."

"Er ... yeah. That'd be great."

"Good." Josh touched an intercom button on the desk and a little microphone aerialed up to meet him. "Diana? Yeah, I've got a Captain Jack Harkness, ex-Torchwood, just signed in. Could you set him up a room while the visa clears?"

"Sure. I'll come get him." came the crackled reply.

Two minutes later, a pretty young thing appeared behind a concealed door in the wall to Jack's right. Unlike the others, her shirt was designed with an open collar. Lower down the ranks, he presumed.

She held out a hand for him to shake. "My name's Diana." she said as he took it. "If you could follow me?"

The journey was alien yet familiar at the same time. The walls were sterile white instead of bare brick, and the lift had smooth-sliding metal doors instead of heavy concrete ones, but it was definitely the same building. She was leading him into the Torchwood hub.

Jack felt a pang at having been stood in what had been His Tourist Centre, but tried not to dwell on it. Thoughts of the Torchwood Memorial and His missing name flooded his mind again, but he pushed them back. He would think on it later.

They were approaching the space where the enormous iron cog used to be. In its place were automatic sliding glass doors. Jack made a sound of disapproval. "This used to be a massive iron door that rolled back." he told Diana. She 'mmmed' in agreement.

"What's left of it is displayed in the Archives." she informed him. "A lot of it was destroyed in the bomb that took down what had been Torchwood Three on this location in 2009. The remnants are pretty much rusting away now, and the droid doesn't see any point in restoring it. But nevermind."

"The droid?"

"Archive droid. It has reasoning or something. Decides what's worth keeping."

"I'd say the door was worth keeping." muttered Jack reproachfully. He looked around, and found he was in the main area of the hub. It was the same shape and the same height, but everything was white. Instead of a couple of workstations, the space had been remodelled to accommodate a long desk lining the outside of the walls, so that the people sat at them on computers wearing headsets could look down into the hub. There were six tiers of these desks, all manned by people wearing black shirts and trousers. Rank was shown by how much uniform they were wearing, concluded Jack. Diana had a jacket, so Jack assumed she was higher than the headset desk jockeys, but lower than Tanya and Josh.

The water tower was still there, but the water around it had been cleaned out and was now more of a water feature with fountains than a pool. It made a very relaxing tinkling sound, though Jack reasoned it must be hell when you needed the loo.

Diana was leading him to a flat HoloScreen on the wall near where his office used to be. He stood before it, and gazed into the blackness expectantly. Diana smiled at him, then turned to the blank screen. "Good evening, Mrs. Cooper." she said.

The screen flickered to life, and a 3D projection of Gwen Cooper's head appeared on the screen. Jack felt cold inside. He didn't want to see. her.

"Hello, Captain." said the Gwen image. Diana seemed a little miffed that Jack knew who this was. She enjoyed recounting the tale of Mrs. Cooper, the sentient computer. The great woman whom all its programming was based certainly was a lively topic for historians – even if it had turned out she was a bit of a selfish cow.

"Hi." said Jack.

"You came back." said Mrs. Cooper coolly.

"I made a promise."

"You made me no promises."

"This isn't about you. It's about Him."

"Who?" she said, narrowing her eyes.

"Ianto Jones."

The image flickered, and reset itself into the warm, gap-toothed smile Jack still remembered. "How are you, Jack? Do you like what Gwen Cooper did with the place?"

"I can't believe she rebuilt. After everything." Jack said scornfully. Mrs. Cooper gazed at him sadly.

"The Rift couldn't be left unchecked, Captain. After the death of Rhys Williams in 2034, she had no choice but take on her responsibility. She and her younger son, Ianto Williams, rebuilt the wreckage that was Torchwood and brought it right into the twenty-first century. Just as everything changed. All Torchwood branches in this galaxy follow the example she set one thousand years ago, and the Empire is still growing. Monitoring transfers between planets and star systems, keeping our galaxy safe."

"So Torchwood has become Immigration Control?" said Jack with a smirk. This irked the Mrs. Cooper, and the screen flickered a little until the smiling image of Gwen reappeared on the screen. "We're helping people, Jack."

The head turned to where Diana was watching the conversation. "Could you take him to his rooms, please? His details are cleared, he just needs to wait for the official documentation to come through."

Diana inclined her head. "Yes, Mrs. Cooper."

Jack followed Diana to where he remembered the Archives as being. Instead of there being one tunnel, it had been sectioned into two smaller tunnels. One had been sealed off with a door marked "Authorised Personnel Only – Clearance 7 or Above." Jack assumed that that part of the tunnel still lead to the Archives. The other tunnel, free for all to access, must be where the hospitality suites were. Diana lead him to a door marked "23".

It was large and spacious, with a big double bed down one end and an en suite bathroom down the other. There was a HoloTelevision and some comfy sofas in the middle of the room, and in the corner was a computer station and chair. Diana began to reel off the rules to him.

"You're low security, so you get the best treatment. The bed will adjust springy and softness to your liking, and there's no CCTV monitoring in here at present. You can watch what you like on TV, but certain channels will, of course, be billed. The computer is hooked up to the internet, but please bear in mind we will log all of your activity in case of future reference. The bedside cabinet is also your library, should you need a book. If you touch this button, the Mrs. Cooper interface will activate, but please only bother her if it's important. If you need anything to eat or drink, there's a kitchen and common room outside your room on the right. You may knock around and socialize with anyone else on this corridor, and equally you may email or phone anyone you like using the computer. At no point may you leave this corridor without a chaperone, so if you need one press this button here. You got that?"

Jack decided it was best to nod. He slung his coat off and threw it over the sofa. "What?" he asked of the alarmed look Diana gave it.

"The droid would prefer it if you could keep the place tidy. It's programming if finick –" she stopped as her ear buzzed. She touched it. "Yes?"

There was silence as she listened. "Okay ... yes ... I'll let him know." said Diana. She gave Jack a rueful look. "That was Tanya. She says she ran a search on the name you gave her, but nothing's come up."

"Nothing?"

"He doesn't exist in this timeline. I'm sorry – maybe you could go back and put right a wrong somewhere? I'm not sure how time travel works. Anyway, they did a full search of all records from the year you specified and broadened it to six months either side. There's no trace of him on any official documentation, and no other hits on that name as a whole within a realistic timezone. Zilch."

Jack bit his tongue. Nothing changed in the timeline. He wasn't really a time traveller. He'd stayed on the same line for a thousand years. Something was wrong ... something was ... missing. OF COURSE! Missing ... Ianto Jones must have been ... missed out. Erased. Removed.

His heart felt an ache. Who would want to erase Ianto? Why would they? What reason was there? Who would have the power .... Jack stopped his thoughts.

Who would have the motive, and the power, to erase Ianto?

The motive was jealousy.

The power was Torchwood.

It had to have been Gwen Cooper.

Jack bit his tongue harder. She wanted him to forget him. His body would be dust, and all records of him were gone. What could Jack hold on to now that his memories were blurring at the edges and His face harder and harder to dredge forward?

"Another thing." said Diana. "James isn't happy with us running the search without clearing it with him first, so you're on watch. No leaving this room. If you want something to eat or drink, buzz the chaperone. That button there. Sorry."

"Who's James?"

Diana's eyes misted over a second. "James. He's our leader." Jack smirked.

"You like him?"

"Who couldn't ... I mean ... he's so ... brave ... and handsome ... and he has the most beautiful blue eyes ... I love blue eyes ..." she came back to herself, having drifted into the middle-distance.

"Don't get me started on blue eyes!" laughed Jack, half-heartedly. Diana smiled at him.

"I'm sorry. You're going to have to give up your search. Unless you get clearance from James, that is. And I'm sorry."

"Right. When I get a chance, I'll talk to James. Er ... do I just ask for 'James' or is there more than one?"

"If you get someone with a jacket , ask for James. If you get a open-shirt, ask for Mr. Bond."

Jack's felt himself laugh. "You're _joking_! James Bond!"

She smiled. "I know ... overreaching or what? It's a pseudonym, based on those historical films about that spy. No-one's sure what his real name is. Several of us don't think that even he remembers it."

Smiling a little fondly, Jack let himself mutter: "I had a friend who used to go by that name. For a laugh."

Diana turned to go. "I really have to get back to work. If I can I'll check in on you later. This door will be locked because James wants you under surveillance, so don't try and get out or the alarms will go."

Jack nodded, plodded over the bed and threw himself down. James Bond. Now there's a name he hadn't heard for as long as Ianto Jones.


	2. Mrs Cooper

Jack wasn't made to be kept in four walls. He hated being confined. To pass the time, he paced around the sterile white room, cracking his knuckles in frustration. There were no windows: no way to tell what time it was or how long before someone would come and ease him out of his boredom. Exasperated, he punched the button on the wall that would open up the Mrs. Cooper interface. A HoloScreen appeared on the wall, black and empty. Gwen's head flickered into the space, smiling politely.

"Good evening, Captain Harkness. How may I help you?"

"I ... erm ..." Why had he activated her again? He wasn't sure.

The projection raised an eyebrow. "Please don't waste my time, Captain."

Jack took a deep breath. "I need you to ... search for me."

"Search what?"

"A name." Jack considered the last attempt. Maybe he should go with birthday rather than deathday? What was Ianto's birthday? He shook the guilt from his mind. "Ianto Jones, born in Cardiff. Died in 2009. Worked for Torchwood Three."

Mrs. Cooper's head flickered, then solidified again on the sweet, polite smile. "No Ianto Jones on record. However, I have hits for Ianto Williams and a Ianto Spencer. Does this help?"

"No." rasped Jack. "Can you broaden the search to civilian files?"

"I already did. The only 'Ianto's' in the Cardiff area around a sensible time period to the search you requested are Ianto Addams, Ianto Davies, Ianto Harrogate, Ianto Kingsway, Ianto Percival, Ianto Smith, Ianto Williams, Ianto Young, Jr. All were also below the age of eighteen or above the age of sixty-five, making them unemployable by the Torchwood Institute, in line with Torchwood Rules and Regulations as laid down by Queen Victoria I and later revised by the Great Gwen Cooper."

Jack stared at her. "Nothing?" he asked, not that he'd thought Tanya and Diana had lied to him.

"The search returned negative."

The Captain looked away. A thought struck him. "Could you do me another search? Quickly?"

The Gwen projection looked shifty. "I don't know. James is already edgy about Tanya searching for you – yes I know about that, and James is a control freak, don't cross him – and without clearance, I'm not sure how deep I'll be able to go this time."

"You're a sentient super computer, and you have to ask permission from someone pretending to be James Bond?" chided Jack. The Gwen flickered, and again returned with the polite smile.

"Just for you, Jack. I'll try and hide the search signature."

He smiled gratefully. "Search for ... Rhiannon Davies. Round about the same time period."

Again, Mrs. Cooper flickered. She solidified with a smile. "Rhiannon Davies, eldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Jones, no forenames on record, married Jonathan Davies aged twenty-two. Bore two children, David and Mica. Died aged sixty-four of natural causes. No occupation on record, assumed housewife. Husband was a mechanic. No home address on record, presumed demolished in the fire of 2072. Possible residences inclu-"

"Okay, okay." Jack cut her off. "So ... the first thing you said. Eldest child? She was the eldest child?"

"Yes."

"Of how many?"

"Two."

"Eldest of two siblings. What was her younger sibling's name?"

Mrs. Cooper blinked and flickered. Her face returned stoic.

"Your actions are not authorised. Torchwood Operatives will be on their way to carry out necessary procedures. Please remain by the Mrs. Cooper station you have activated, or force may be used to retrieve you. Please note this is an automated message. There is no need to respond."

Jack stared at her. His suspicions were confirmed. Someone – possibly Real Gwen – had deleted Ianto from the system. From the world, even. And meticulously. Even the version of herself she had programmed into the mainframe didn't know. Why would they be protecting the information still? Maybe the name was red flagged. One of those security issues you feel compelled to protect no matter what, even if you don't understand why. Jack ground his teeth, not realising until the salt met his lips that tears had leaked down his face.

There was a knock on the door behind him, and Diana entered looking concerned.

"I told you not to try it without clearance." she admonished, but pulled him in for a hug. Did he really look so upset he needed a hug from a stranger? He hugged her back, grateful for the gesture. "I won't take out procedure this time, but please: stop. James will go mental if he thinks were going behind his back. He makes it his business to know everything."

Jack nodded silently. He slumped down into the couch as Diana turned off the Mrs. Cooper interface, still relaying her message. She didn't even ask permission as she sat herself down the sofa beside him and curled her legs underneath her.

"Tell me about him." she said. Jack shifted a little uncomfortably. She noticed and softened her tone even more. "If something's happened to the information : corruption, deletion – stuff like that – we might have a case. But I don't think James will let us dig around unless he thinks the case is worth it. The past is the past to him. We can't change it. Given the state you're in, I'd say it's more of a need to know than a want to know, yeah?"

"Know what?"

"Whether something happened in the past to change the timeline, or if something's happening now."

Jack nodded.

Diana extended an arm around his shoulders comfortingly. "Tell me about him."

"He ... he was my partner." began Jack. The tears welled up again. How many partners had he had since? How many more would he have from now on? Why did He still matter so much?

"Long ago ... a thousand years ago ... my partner ... and ... he died. And it was my fault. All my fault. Everything. It all happened because ... because ... I can't remember why, but it was definitely my fault. I remember ... him in my arms. He was so weak ... already a dead weight, and hanging on with everything he had left just to beg me ... beg me ... beg me not to forget him. But ... you couldn't understand. He was so ... different. After him I swore never to let myself love like that again. Stayed away from the quiet, well-dressed ones. Went for people like me. Bastards. Total bastards. Because of how much it hurt. Right to the centre of my being. First thought and last thought, and pretty much all thoughts in between. It's my fault. It's all my fault. I never ... he lay there in my arms ... dying ... he even turned blue, which was insulting. Everyone knew red was his colour. But ... he lay there in my arms ... he told me he loved me. And I wanted to scream it at him – scream at him that I loved him more, that I loved him longer than he loved me. That I couldn't let myself go again. Couldn't give myself to anyone like that again. But I didn't. I said ... you know what I said? He said "I love you" and I said "Don't." What the fuck was I doing? He was going ... he was leaving me. I didn't say it. Was it arrogance? A defence mechanism? I think so. Losing him was too hard .... and now ... I've come back. To this graveyard of a planet. I've come back, and there's nothing. Nothing of the amazing things he did, nothing of the good and kindness that he worked so hard for. Nothing. All gone. They didn't even spare him an inch on your stupid Memorial. It's like I've lost him all over again, but this time it's more permanent because there's nothing left to bring his memory back to me. He's gotten blurred around the edges, y'see. I picture him in my head, but that's not him really. The body isn't his – it's too slender – but I can't remember what his real one looked like, so I stick with that. His hands were bigger, and he never wore rings. But what other hands can I remember? His hair wasn't that colour, I'm sure. Maybe it was darker. Maybe it was shorter. His face seems so distant ... I remember his lips were the perfect shade of pink, and softer than anything I've ever known – but I only remember those as facts. I can't imagine them; I can't see the shape of his mouth, the angles of his Welsh teeth, feel the texture or dampness of lips on my skin. I just remember the facts – and now even those are being taken away from me. And d'you know what? Even if it meant ripping open a schism in the fabric of reality – if I had the power to do it – just to absorb the Time Vortex in its rawest form (even rawer than that found in the TARDIS), then I'd do it to bring him back. I'd risk the Multi-Verse itself just to have him back again."

Diana was silent, not having understood a lot of his rambling, and was rubbing soothing circles on Jack's back. He'd let it all out in a big tidal wave, and now neither of them were sure what to say. Eventually, Diana let out a long breath.

"Captain Harkness, I think it's right you know this." she said carefully. Jack sat bolt upright, his eyes wide, intent and listening. "Tanya ... Tanya and Lieutenant Crewe – she's in Research – Tanya and Lieutenant Crewe found something. It's tiny, and it's miniscule, but it might lead to something more. Totally secret, you understand?"

Jack's pulse was racing and his mouth was dry. "What was it?" he asked hoarsely.

"We found one hit for 'Ianto Jones' in the Classified Archives. We were curious as to ... well ... the records from that time. They say ... you're not a Time Traveller, are you?" she gave him a sideways glance. "You didn't change a timeline, so someone's gone back and changed things – like you said – and ... well. Classified Archives ... even Tanya's not allowed to mess with those. So we had to get the Lieutenant to agree to a quick off-the-record shufti. Lucky she and Tanya have a thing going, or we'd never have got the access code."

"Please, Diana." pleaded Jack. "Please ... tell me what you found."

"Like I said: one hit for the name "Ianto Jones". The document is dated 2007, but the exact day it was created is a little vague. It's a tiny memo – not even a miniscule blip in the system – reminding Doctor Owen Harper to stop using the communal fridge for storing alien blood samples. It's got the signature 'Mr. Ianto Jones'. One tiny, forgotten email still in the system. The only record of his existence as far as we can tell ..."

"That's him!" Jack nearly shouted. "That's him that's him that's him!" He pulled her in for a bone-crushing hug and she gasped in surprise. "You found him! You found him! Thank you thank you thank you!"

Diana peeled his arms from around her, laughing at how pleased he was. "So ... yes. We've found this tiny blip: now we can get you an appointment to pitch an appeal for an Access-All-Areas Research Permit from James. I think if we present the information correctly, outline our needs, specify goals and ensure he knows this is a Torchwood matter, not completely personal – as you said, he was Torchwood personnel. We have a responsibility to those who die to protect us –" Jack flinched at the word 'die' being associated with Ianto. "so James can't really say no. He might even grant us a research team."

"We?" asked Jack. "Us?"

"Yeah." said Diana. "I want to help you. I know what it's like ... to look back, and find nothing of what you knew." she fell silent and looked away. Jack didn't pry.

A breakthrough had been made. Diana would get an appointment with James to arrange the meeting for the pitch, and soon they would have all the access they needed to try and dredge up anything else that was left of Ianto.

"Oh!" said Diana, pausing as she got up to leave. "One of our new tech wizards had an idea."

"How many people did you discuss this with?" asked Jack, incredulous. He had the feeling, after Mrs. Cooper's warning not to cross James that they should be thus far keeping this little predicament under wraps.

"Trustworthy people." said Diana. "Anyway ... she said that if you have a photograph, or an image of any kind of who we're looking for, she can scan it and convert it into Binary coding. From there she can translate it into Old Binary, and from there into the Ancient Binary used in the twenty-first to twenty-ninth centuries. Then she can search through the Internet and find coding matches. It'll be easier to unearth all this with image matches – any news reports, blog postings, BookFace sites that have an image of him will surely also contain some form of information either to him or someone close. What do you think?"

Jack turned the information over in his head. "I have one photograph. But promise ... promise me you will bring it back?"

"I swear."

Jack rooted through his RAF coat, still in the same new condition it always was. Alien tech sometimes worked marvellous wonders. "Ianto bought me this coat." he said as his fingers closed around the photograph paper in the pocket.

"It more than suits you." smiled Diana. Jack grinned back. He produced the piece of thinning paper, and looked at it doubtfully.

"He used to be there." he pointed to an area of the photo that looked exactly the same as the rest of the piece of paper. A couple of darker lines showed where vague silhouettes had stood, but the area where Jack indicated was completely blank to the naked eye. "I kissed him away ..." Jack said more to himself than to Diana, so she said nothing and took the ancient photo.

"I'll see if there's anything we can do with this." she said, but Doubt was creeping through her stomach. It looked like a piece of yellowing paper to her. She decided not to give up hope. Maybe Lennie Tech Wizard-ette would be able to do something with it.

Jack touched her arm as she turned to leave. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"You ... like this James guy, right?"

She turned a sweet shade of pink. "Yeah. But once you meet him, you will too."

Jack gave her a watery smile. "Nothing's going on between the two of you?"

"No." she said ruefully.

"Then he's an idiot. And you can tell him that from me." winked Jack.

"I don't think I will, thanks." she said, trying to sound confident but grinning sheepishly.

"Hmm ... might damage your chances." he joked.

"You're a charmer, you are." she smiled, and he reached out to brush hair out of her eyes. He moved closer, and lowered his head. He caught her lips gently and pressed them both together, snaking his other arm around her to pull her closer. She responded, and probed her tongue into his mouth.

She pulled back after a second or two. "Just a shag, yeah?" she asked, already looking lusty.

"I don't do relationships." shrugged Jack.

Diana grabbed him by the lapels and threw him onto the bed.

"Better make this quick, yeah?" she said, straddling his hips and kissing and biting his neck. "I've got a meeting in half an hour."


	3. Lennie

"You can see James ..." said the PA, clickety-clacking on a keyboard as she spoke. "... a week today. Four 'o' clock." The hail of clicks and clacks stopped, and she smiled at him politely – as politely as her robotic skin would allow, anyway. To the casual observer, she would look as human as the next ... well, human ... but once you got closer and saw how she moved and the way her rubber skin was so perfectly smooth and painted, you knew she was a robot. It unnerved Jack.

"Are you sure I can't see him today?" he asked. He couldn't use his normal charms on the emotionally dead hunk of metal in front of him to get what he wanted, and he was fairly certain bribery wouldn't be accepted either. The robot would be perfect at keeping everything organised, no surprises. No last minute visitors, no unauthorised guests. No unwanted Captains blagging their way in. James had an ounce of cleverness at least. A robot PA instead of human. Jack had heard he liked his efficiency, and what was more efficient than a program?

The droid had started clicking her keyboard again. "Sorry, sir." she said. "A week today. Five 'o' clock."

Jack growled his annoyance, but the robot just smiled politely and waited for his response. "You said four 'o' clock before." he pointed out.

"James is the head of the Torchwood Institute as well as New Torchwood Three. While you were waiting, someone else was booked in to that slot. Would you like me to reserve this slot, or would you like me to search again?"

"I'll have that slot." said Jack.

"My apologies, sir. That just went. Would tomorrow at three be okay?"

"YES!" he nearly shouted.

She clicked and clacked, and a printer whirred behind her. Out of it popped a little card, with the date and time of his appointment neatly printed beside the Torchwood logo. The robot handed it to him.

"Lucky we had the cancellation, sir." she said, smiling her fake smile.

"Very." grumbled Jack, pocketing the card.

He moved away from the droid, searching for Diana with his eyes. "Got an appointment." he mouthed to her across the room. She gave him the thumbs up, disentangled herself from the conversation she was having and made her way over.

"When for?"

"Tomorrow. Three."

"_What!!!_" she stared at him. "How did you get an appointment so early? He's booked up at least two weeks in advance, usually!"

Jack shrugged. "Droid said a cancellation."

Diana grinned, then faltered. "Hang on ... that gives us just over 27 hours to get a pitch together!" she touched her ear. "Lennie? Yeah ... I'm gonna have to come down. Drop whatever you're doing. I'll bring the Captain. We have an appointment for the pitch ... tomorrow, three 'o' clock ... I know! ... Cancellation, apparently. Haha I doubt James would change his schedule for ... haha 'personal reasons' – that's one way of saying it. ... No. Well ... yeah ... you know what he's like. I bet he even has sex to a schedule!" she sniggered, then remembered Jack. "Anyway ... gossip later. I'm coming down. Did you manage anything with that photo? You did! – great! Yeah ... okay."

"Well?" asked Jack, as he was jostled by a team of Operatives in jumpsuits charging past him. Was there really a need for so many people in Torchwood Three?

"She says she's managed to salvage part of your photo." said Diana, giving an encouraging smile. "Hopefully she'll be able to piece together some of the rest. Now, you'll have to come this way ..."

She led him through corridors Jack assumed must have been built quite recently, as he had no memory of them. They led past rooms filled with computers, desks and chairs. Conference rooms, projection rooms – even something that looked like a massive underground barracks. Diana stopped them outside a medium sized office/tech lab. It was, in Jack's opinion, the most 'Hub' like room he'd seen so far. The walls were hidden behind monitors and cabling, sparks were flying from overheating computer towers and bits and pieces of all kinds of technology were piled around the floor. In the centre of the room was a beige hunk of metal that Jack assumed was a thrown-together robot. The parts were from all kinds of different makes and models, patched together then sprayed the same colour. Currently welding on a new side panel was a short, plump brown-haired girl, squinting in concentration through her goggles.

She looked up when she'd finished, putting the goggles on her head and smiling brightly. "Hello. You must be Captain Harkness." she said.

"Yep. And you must be ... Lennie? The Tech Wizard-ette?"

Smiling sheepishly, she shook the hand he offered. She turned to Diana and jerked her head in the direction of the haphazard robot. "Archiver's down again. Bastard thing won't stay together."

Diana frowned at it, and Jack saw its head move. He hadn't noticed before. It had a Cyberman's head. The metal arches that extended from the ears and across the top had been hacked away and the rest had been sprayed beige, but it was definitely a Cyberman head. Jack shuddered at the hollow eyes that met his, and was thankful it turned away.

"There isn't a ... human brain in it, is there?" he asked, unable to look away as the mish-mashed robot heaved itself off the supports that held it during maintenance.

Lennie gave him a shocked look. "Hell no!" she said. "How ... why would ... that's ... what the hell?" she babbled, at a loss.

"That head was from a race of robots that extracted human brains and encased them in metal, creating more of them. Cybermen. Robots programmed with human brains."

"I. Am. Artificial."

The robot had a Cyberman voice box, too.

"Why would anyone make ... that ..." asked Diana.

"Some psychopath who wanted to live forever. We destroyed them all, though. I'm guessing Torchwood scavenged the parts and just stuck them on _that_."

"I. Have. Feelings." said the robot, and Jack's blood ran a little cold. "I. Am. Artificial. Intelligence."

"Sorry. But ... hang on ... you have a sentient robot – with feelings – and you don't even bother to give it matching parts? I mean ... you could have stretched to legs that were the same length, at least ..." Jack scolded, noticing the way the Archive droid loped and lunged on its mismatched legs as it heaved itself away. It was an unnerving sight.

"James wants rid of it." said Lennie, setting down her blowtorch. "But because it has AI, it also has a concept of death. We can't turn it off unless it says we can, or it's murder. So James makes it hard – budget cuts, scavenged parts, old wire, primitive circuitry – hoping that eventually it'll ask to be switched off. When I first came here last year, it was top-of-the-range, like James' personal droids. Now it's a hunk of beige metal. And if you ask me, it's depressed."

Diana sighed dramatically. "James doesn't like the idea of the droid pottering about in 'his' Archives. Says it's a job for us humans, and that we should take pride in all that ancient junk. Keep it organised, find what we need by ourselves, keep it tidy. He says that if humans managed it before, we'll manage it now. We just have to wait for the Archiver to give in."

"Is it me, or do you hang on James' every word?" smirked Lennie.

"I'd hang on to him any day." replied Diana.

"It's those eyes, isn't it?" smiled Lennie, drifting off into the middle-distance.

"Yeahhh." sighed Diana, joining her.

"Anyway ... photograph!" said Lennie, clapping her hands as the two women came back to earth. "Here's what I've got. There's you, Captain." She pointed at the wall and a large HoloScreen appeared, a fragmented and broken image peppered over it. Jack could make himself out, dominating the right side of the image. Next to him was a small, caramel-skinned woman. "Face recognition tells me that's Toshiko Sato." continued Lennie.

She stopped there, wondering how to go on. "The thing is ... the other half of the image. I'm guessing that's where who we're looking for was standing, right?" Jack nodded. "Yeah ... I won't be able to process that I'm afraid. It's too ... well, he's gone. I'm running through a couple of other signature tracers, but I don't know if I can restore that part of the image. It eroded ... differently from the rest." she averted her eyes. It hadn't taken her long to realise that it was the gentle touch of tear and saliva-covered lips to glossy paper that had rubbed him away. She decided not to mention it either.

"Not even a bit of him?" whispered Jack.

"I'm sorry. Like I said, there's still a smidge of hope left in my other signature tracers ... but ... I don't know. Here ... look." Jack moved to see, and on the little screen she was pointing at, a collection of status bars were running towards their 100% mark. Just as he was about to ask something, an alarm started blaring.

Diana sprang to action. "Jack, stay here. Don't touch anything. Lennie, get your field pack." she touched her ear and started blaring orders at other Operatives.

Lennie paused on her way out. "If any of those work," she indicated the signature tracers' status bars. "A dialogue box should open with what it can dredge out of the picture. Right click and convert it to binary. Then copy and paste that into the other programme I have open and that will break it down and translate it to the Binary codings we need. Then ... then just don't. Touch. Anything. Okay?"

Jack nodded, and pulled up a stool to watch the status bars. There were four of them in total, organised in the order they would complete. The first one was at 98% ... 99% ... Jack held his breath ... 100% ... FAILED.

He cursed. He moved his eyes to the next status bar. 88%. 89%. 90%. Failed.

Glowering at the next bar as if daring it to fail, every muscle in Jack's body tensed. It was now reaching 97%. 'Come on, come on. I've got a good feeling about you.' Jack thought. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the screen changed and a perfect copy of his photograph – the photograph he hadn't seen for far too long – covered the screen. He pinched the corners of the HoloScreen, making it bigger so that he could drink in the left hand side of the picture.

The He was. Maroon shirt – he really did look good in red based colours – waistcoat, jacket, pinstripes ... coffee cup in his hand. His blue eyes smiled out of the picture, His lips as perfect as Jack had convinced himself they would be.

Jack did as Lennie had told him to, watching as the programmes broke the image down to a series of symbols and numbers that made up Modern Binary. He transferred that into the other program that Lennie had indicated, and watched as it was eventually broken down to the "01" format of the Binary period they would be searching through.

The Captain hit the print button, and the perfect, restored image rolled out of the machine. It was sharper and more perfect that before. Bigger, too. Automatically, he lowered his lips and kissed the ink that made up His face. Folding it up, making sure none of the creases lined His perfect features, he pocketed the picture. No need to tell the girls he'd printed it off. He had, after all, been told to touch nothing else.

Jack twiddled his thumbs, bored. Luckily, before long, Lennie returned. Diana was still busy, she said. Placating James. Jack smirked.

"What is it with everyone and James?"

"Oh ... I've only met him once. Just before he became Director of Operations and Head of the Institute and all that Jazz. I only really saw his eyes, though. We were wearing balaclavas. On a team building skiing thing. He wasn't in my group." she added, disappointed. "He has the most wonderful blue eyes though. And broad shoulders and ... you just knew he was so ... masculine? You know?"

Jack rolled his eyes a little. "One of the filters worked. I've stuck it through the binary doo-dah thing."

Lennie moved to the computer and smiled. "Almost done."

Diana stormed into the room. "Honestly, people just don't respect him!" she spat.

"What happened?" asked Jack.

"Oh ... James has been in a flying rage. I mean ... real rage ... I was a bit scared. He has ... a dark side. I wouldn't like to be on it. Anyway ... some little brat we took on last week just had his brains fried because he didn't listen to him. Said he didn't have to because 'James only got where he is today 'cuz he's the eye-candy', and that was a CCTV quote. So James left the kid to it and he got zapped."

"Eye-Candy ..." muttered Jack. He grinned at the girls. "Y'know ... Ianto Jones used to hate being called Eye-Candy. I doubt he'd approved of a robot in his Archives either. And yeah ... he'd definitely've made everyone wear suits if he was in charge!" laughed Jack. The stored memories of Him were coming back now that he'd had his visual trigger. It was soothing to Jack. "He had the most beautiful blue eyes too." he said, subconsciously patting the pocket where the photo was hidden.

Diana's earphone buzzed again. "Yeah ... right ... I'm coming. Gotta go." she said shortly, turning on her heel.

Lennie bent over the computer that was still churning out zeros and ones. It beeped as the translation completed, and she typed several commands into the prompt as she told the computer to trawl the internet looking for similar coding to that found in the specified part of the image – Ianto Jones' face.

She moved the mouse, and beckoned Jack to come over. He looked down over her shoulder as the status bar inched itself to 0.000000015%. "Looks like it may take a couple of days." she said. "Luckily there's a loophole that says we only need permission for this if we're searching for information. We're looking for an image, so hopefully that will stand before James. Oo! I'll start getting our pitch sorted for tomorrow, too – oh!"

Lennie had flicked back on to the window with the image in. It covered the entire screen, and as she drank in the figure on the left, she frowned. "My ... he does have beautiful eyes, doesn't he?" she breathed.

"Hands off!" joked Jack.

"Hmmm ..." she said, squinting a little at the digital image before her. "Y'know ... he does actually look ... I dunno ...

"Tall?" offered Jack.

"Dark?

Handsome?

Quiet and Brooding?"

"No ..." breathed Lennie. ".... familiar ..."


	4. Magic Button

Jack and Lennie burst into Jack's room full of excitement. Diana was waiting for them, sitting on the sofa and trying to hide the fact she'd been stuffing her face with chocolate. "We did it!" screamed Lennie. "We did it! We did it! We got clearance!"

They all jumped up and down, hugging. They weren't sure why they were quite so excited as Jack was, but his moods were often infectious.

"What happened?" asked Diana as they settled on to the couch, cuddling up to Jack as he sat between them.

"James didn't actually turn up." said Jack. "But he sent one of those cameras that zoom and fly around everywhere and monitored from his jet to London."

"Mmm." Diana concurred. "I didn't think he'd turn up. Not after the mobs in London. I thought he'd cancel the meeting outright, to be honest."

"Yeah ... but he monitored anyway. Well, they said the camera was his. The feed was one way, so who knows?"

Lennie managed to prise some chocolate from Diana's grip. "Where'd you get this? Mmmmm ... it's dark ..."

"James' office after he went for his first appointment this morning. Couldn't resist!"

Jack squeezed the girls to him a little tighter in gratitude. "He's given us a week to scrape together what we can. If it looks like there's been some proper, dirty espionage, he might give us longer."

"Just us?" asked Diana, worrying her bottom lip.

"He said we could take Button as well." Lennie replied.

"Which one was Button?"

"Button?" asked Jack.

"Yep. His real name is Ivan Jackson," Lennie informed them. "... but he's just ... he's as cute as a Button! He's also the best Researcher this side of the Universe. He could find out exactly how many hairs you lost in the last twenty-four hours if you asked him to."

Jack grinned.

"Don't." laughed Lennie, giving him a playful punch. "He'd be too polite to say no. Especially to you, Captain. Er ... are we going to tell her about the Condition?"

"What condition?" inquired Diana.

"I have to work for Torchwood." Jack said, his face momentarily grim. He made himself brighten up and looked from one girl's face to the other. "But at least I've got you two!"

They sat chatting and sharing chocolate for a while, before deciding it was time to make a start on their week of hard work. Diana led the way to the main desk so that Jack could fill out his Torchwood reapplication, that had been accepted before he'd filled it in, and was given a Torchwood uniform. It was the standard suit, though he was pleased to see he had a jacket and tie and wouldn't have to work his way up the ranks. Diana looked a bit annoyed to suddenly be his inferior.

Jack donned the clothing, seeing how it hugged his body. He saved the tie until last as he wasn't really sure what knot to tie it. This tie, unlike the others he'd seen, was not silver. It was black. He was higher up the ranks than Tanya had been. Jack asked Diana what a black tie meant.

"Security Clearance Two. You can go anywhere, basically. Except Classified Archives. Only the Archive droid can go in there. Morals and stuff."

Jack thought of the cobbled together robot. It made him shudder. He offered the tie to Lennie. "Could you do this up for me?" he asked, smiling. She obliged, tying it in a Full Windsor.

"Perfect." she admired. Diana seemed huffy, and almost cut between them.

"According to these outlines," she said, reading the list of permissions from the pitch. "I'm not on this case. It's you, Lennie and Button. I'll be checking in on progress of course, but only in personal interest."

Jack's smile faded. "You can't help?"

"Apparently not." she said sadly. "I've just been landed on a new case, so I won't have time. But you three will be fine – and you have your Magic Button."

"Let's go find him then!" said Lennie. Jack offered her an arm, and waving goodbye to Diana they wandered in the direction of the Research labs.

Button really was as cute as a button. His hair had outgrown its cut a little, and his face was still round and youthful. He even had a button nose. His big eyes were deep, dark blue like the pools you read about in poetry. Jack decided that he would very much like to press Button's magic button very soon.

"Hullow!" greeted Button, rising from his workstation in the small, cramped office that was his. HoloScreens were floating all around, and the walls were covered in scraps of paper, handwritten notes and post-its.

"Hiii. Cap'n Jack Harkness." mega-watt grinned the Captain. "And _who_ are you?" he took the proffered hand and raised it to his lips.

Button smiled coolly. "I'm Button. No point calling me anything else. I only answer to pet names." He retrieve his hand and pulled a HoloScreen through the air towards them. It showed a status bar at 82%, and it was climbing at a none-too casual pace. "I restarted your Binary search from yesterday, Lennie. I have faster computers up here, so it's going a helluva lot quicker. I mean ... it's doing nearly a billion pages of Ancient Binary a second! – and what's more, it's already racked up a few hits."

Jack's heart leapt. "Really?"

"Yep." smiled Button. "Can't see them until the process is finished, but if you see that number there ... yep, that one ... that's how many matches it has within reasonable criteria. But remember: they may just be people who looked like our subject, not exact matches."

"Oh! This is brilliant, Button!" grinned Lennie.

"I refined the program to give us image URLs, too. So once I dig out the oldest computer I can, Len can fix it up and we'll have the websites they're from running for research."

"Way ahead of you, Button." grinned Lennie. "Already got one dug out and functioning. I'll run and fetch it."

"You're brilliant, you are." said Jack. She smiled wide, and skipped away to fetch the computer.

A semi-awkward silence fell between Jack and Button.

"How long do you think she'll be?" Jack asked, making small talk.

"Knowing Lennie, she'll probably bump into a million people she knows and start chatting about the latest advancements in cybernetic AI." smiled Button. "So ... half an hour?"

"Hmm. What to do in the mean time?" pondered Jack aloud.

Button pushed a key on the keyboard. Part of the wall came down, revealing a pull-down bed. Jack shrugged.

"Fair enough." he said, as Button grabbed his lapels and dragged him down in a hard kiss. Jack decided he liked the thirty-first century.

~*~*~*~

Lennie returned to find them getting dressed and Jack saw her roll her eyes in a 'boys will be boys' manner. The laptop she brought with her wasn't particularly old to Jack's eyes, but Button eyed it almost incredulously.

"That thing is _ancient_!" he exclaimed, opening it up and examining the casing and keyboard.

"Not as ancient as the stuff inside. Everything we'll need to run and convert all that information into something readable. It'll then send the stuff to Button's computer, translate it into Modern Binary and give us something solid."

As if on cue, the program searching for matches pinged its completion. Jack shot to it, straightening the tie he knew he was going to hate wearing. And tying, for that matter. How had it got so complicated? Lennie tutted and moved as if to help him, but Button got there first. If she was put out, she didn't show it.

Button clicked with his mouse, and the first of the two hundred or so hits covered the screen. It wasn't Ianto.

"Not him." said Jack.

Button smiled reassuringly, tapped the "next" arrow on the keyboard and told Jack to keep going through them that way until he found one.

One hundred and twenty-four images later, and Jack felt like screaming. There were less than a hundred hits left, and his patience was wearing thin.

No. Next. No. Next. No. Oh! – no. Next. No. Next. Yes!

There he was! Smiling at the camera! Younger than in Jack's photo, but in pretty much the same pose and same lighting. Blue eyes laughed to him, a moment caught in time so long ago, and he looked so happy. Jack called Button and Lennie over.

"This one ... this is him!" he chirruped.

"Oo." said Button appreciatively. "Yeah ... I so would ... and those eyes! I have a thing for blue eyes ... er ... drag and drop it there ... then carry on through the rest ... then I'll piece everything together once we've got what we can."

Jack found seven more pictures of Ianto Jones in the remaining matches, and his heart was thundering in his chest as he read the links to Button.

Button opened the browser on the ancient laptop and began to type in the address.

Jack held his breath.

The room plunged into darkness.

A siren wailed, and red uplighting flickered into power. Jack punched the wall in frustration. The HoloScreen had vanished and the electricity had been cut: the entire building was forced into lockdown.

Button had frozen, staring at the spot where the screen with all their hits had been. "What the ..." he breathed. Lennie touched her ear, but all she got was static. They could hear shouts and barked orders all around them. Button sidled closer to Jack.

Mrs. Cooper appeared on an interface screen with her stoic professional face. "New Torchwood Three is in Lockdown. Virus detected. Origin Unknown. Damage to Mrs. Cooper Mainframe: 0 per cent. Damage to Archive Database: 0 per cent. Damage to Contact Database: 0 per cent. Damage to Personnel Database: 0 per cent. Damage to Research and Information Retrieval Database: 0 per cent. Damage to Archive Network: 0 per cent. Damage to Contact Network: 0 per cent. Damage to Personnel Network: 0 per cent. Damage to Research and Information Retrieval Network: ninety-eight point three four per cent.

New Torchwood Three is in Lockdown. Virus detected. Origin Unknown. Damage to Mrs. Cooper Mainframe ..." continued the computer projection of Gwen in an automated loop. Button was kneading his forehead, doing his best not to cry. Jack turned to him, and noticed.

"Hey," he said, lightly grasping his shoulders. "What is it? Sshhh now. What is it?"

Button smiled weakly, his eyes glistening. "We have to start again, Jack. I mean ... all over again. Research and Information Retrieval is us. Me. Everything I've done is gone. All my programs ... the programs that Lennie sent me ... ninety-eight per cent damage. We're about four weeks behind where we started."

Jack stared. "Programs ... gone?"

Lennie stepped in. "The signature tracers that salvaged the photograph. The image/binary converter. The Modern to Ancient Binary translator. The search engine we used to match the codes. All programs written by us. Torchwood. All kept in the Re Ret Network in case the database went down. Now ... they're all gone."

Button was balling his fists. "Years have been poured into that Network! People died of old age building that Network! And now we've lost everything! There's no way we'll be up and running in time to retrieve those URLs in a week. " He let out a frustrated growl. Jack caught his shoulders again and hugged him for a couple of seconds.

"You don't need to re-write your programs just yet." purred the Captain. "Does it help I wrote down all the URLs on a trusty piece of paper?"

Button's eyes shone with relief. "You did?"

"Nothing like having a physical copy where Torchwood is concerned!" he said, crossing back to the workstation he'd been searching through photos of Ianto Jones. He produced an A4 piece of paper with all eight URLs carefully copied down. Button took it from him, examining it.

"We ... we're not crippled, then? And ... oh!" he jumped in delight as he realised. "The search engine I installed on the ancient laptop! That won't need rewriting I don't ..." he pressed a few buttons on the old silver box. "... aha! It's not connected to the main Network – it's totally untouched by the virus!"

Jack suddenly stiffened. "Do you think it was a targeted attack?"

Mrs. Cooper was still drawing out her automated message.

Button frowned. "You think ... god no! You're right ... it's too much of a coincidence!"

Lennie nodded vigorously. "Way to much of a coincidence. How would they know to take out the active programs on the Network rather than the Database if they weren't specifically trying to stop us? And the only person who'd know we take the Network measure are other Torchwood Operatives. But ... a virus? Wiping out the Network? That's years and years worth of stuff. It would have to be someone with intimate knowledge of Torchwood and of its computer systems. They'd also need quite high clearance to be able to access the raw mainframe. I'd say ranking roundabout Ties, definitely. Maybe even Black-Ties."

"Or ..." said Jack, staring at Mrs. Cooper. "The sentient technology in charge of everything."

The other two froze. "What are you saying, Jack?" asked Lennie. "The computer ... has an agenda?"

"If this is technology based on Gwen Cooper – I'm guessing using her brainwaves as a basis for thought patterns – then maybe. I mean ... she has the clearance, right? And 'intimate knowledge of Torchwood and its computer systems'. She could easily formulate a virus to damage nothing but the Research and Information Retrieval Network."

"It's a computer. It's not allowed to self-contaminate." said Lennie. "I've reviewed parts of her programming myself. Self sabotage ... it's not possible."

"If that thing is modelled on Gwen Cooper, I'm more than certain she'd have found a way."

Mrs. Cooper stared straight ahead, eyes unseeing, reeling off her message. Several hundred meters below, the real culprit stretched out his long fingers and reached for a sliver-rimmed black mug. Nothing like a fresh, hot brew while committing sabotage in one's own Institute, was there?

_'How long will you look, Captain Jack Harkness?'_ thought the perpetrator. _'How hard will you try? How long before you realise: you're not going to think what you'll find ... is worth saving?'_


	5. James

Jack woke up with Button in his bed again. Three days in a row, he smiled to himself. Did that mean this was going to be a regular thing? Should Jack turn the tables and creep to Button's bed in the middle of the night instead? He rolled over to find Button still sleeping peacefully – which made a change, as normally he was stressing and fretting over something or other and sleep would refuse to take him – and Jack lifted an arm over his head so that he could settle in the crook of his shoulder. Inhaling, Jack could smell the lingering scent of copier ink, with a slightly burnt scent he guessed would come from the overheating computers. There was peppermint, too. Behind that, was the masculine musk of sweat and sex.

'Uh oh.' said that voice in Jack's head. 'Watch it, Jack. He's a quiet one.'

The Captain sat bolt upright, clutching the covers with whitened knuckles. _No, no, no, no, no!_ he screamed inside. He had to break off whatever was starting here. He couldn't get close. He couldn't let himself fall for anyone like that again ...

Long arms snaked around his waist, and despite himself he couldn't help but relax into the embrace Button offered. "What's wrong?" asked Button's sleepy voice.

"Erm ... bad dream." mumbled Jack. He let Button cuddle him from behind, and allowed his head to loll backwards onto his shoulder. His ear was near his mouth, and he couldn't help but flick his tongue out and touch the shell. Button laughed and kissed his shoulder.

"I really like you, Captain." said Button awkwardly. "I mean ... we've only known each other for five days ... but ... I really like you, Captain."

Jack sighed and nuzzled into Button's hair. "I really like you, too." he said. "I shouldn't. But I do."

"Why shouldn't you?" He sounded a little hurt.

The Captain considered it for a second. Maybe it would scare him away if he told him about ... his 'wrongness'.

"I have something I need to tell you." said Jack, carefully.

He felt Button stiffen. "What?" he asked.

"I ... erm ... I might have to show you ..."

"What? Show me? Wha- ... what are you talking about, Jack?"

Jack disentangled himself from Button's arms and pulled his Torchwood issue gun out of his bedside drawer. He felt Button freeze on the bed, clearly uncertain and terrified that maybe Jack was a psychopath about to shoot him. Jack raised the barrel to his head and fired.

The darkness was being ripped from him again. Cold air was searing his lungs, and every nerve-ending was firing in their orgasmic call back into life.

Button was crouched over him, pale and crying. The colour drained from him further as he backed away, staring disbelievingly at the Captain. He ran his eyes up and down Jack's form, lingering over where the bullet hole was now healing itself, then on to the spatters of blood and bone and brains that were slashed across the wall and floor.

Jack spoke first. "I can't die." he said simply. Button was still staring. _Run away,_ thought Jack. _'Run away and leave me so I can't fall in love with you.'_

Button swallowed hard. "How?" he breathed, his voice cracked.

"I don't know." lied Jack. If Button ever found himself by a TARDIS or an Untempered Schism, he didn't want him getting any ideas about bringing back others – even if Jack knew that if he ever saw the Doctor again, he himself would rip open the TARDIS and ...

No. No he wouldn't. The Doctor wouldn't let him. The Doctor would know better than to leave a man who would lose everything over and over again on his own with the Time Vortex.

Button crouched by him, touching the perfect skin of Jack's temple that had only seconds ago been a bloody, scorched hole. "You can't ... you're immortal? That's not ... that's impossible ..."

"Impossible, but true. I'm a mistake. I'm an error. I'm wrong – that's what the Doctor says."

"Then the Doctor doesn't know you properly."

"_You_ don't know me at all."

"I'd like to."

Stupid Button. He wasn't going to let him get away. Jack stared into his deep blue eyes, watching as they flicked down to his mouth. He thought of the possibilities. He could fall in love with Button; they could have an affair or a relationship (or whatever the hell Jack might call an affair or relationship). Jack could be happy for a few short years – until Button's self doubt set in as he started to get grey hair and wrinkles and saggy skin. Then it would all be arguments and mistrust. Button would end up hating him, and either die hating him or leave Jack to die alone.

Jack lost his train of thought as Button's lips touched his, and he allowed himself to get lost in a kiss. They broke apart, but Button still looked uncertain. Jack hauled himself to his feet and offered a hand to help him up, which he took, but Button didn't stop frowning.

"Do you age?" he asked, tentative.

"No. Not that I can tell."

"Oh ... how old are you?"

"I'm 3, 170 odd."

"Fuck."

"Yeah."

Button pulled him into a hug. "I have to go." he said quietly. _'Yes,'_ thought Jack. _'You really do.'_ "The droid's going to mental at the blood and brains, so I'm making myself scarce." explained Button, pulling on his clothes.

"Droid? You mean ... the Big Beige Monster comes into my _room_?"

Button laughed. "No! Of course not! The Hospitality Droid does the rooms. The Archiver does what it says on the tin. The very beige tin."

Jack began pulling on a clean suit, avoiding the blood on the sterile white floor. Just as Button was coming over to give him a kiss goodbye, he held up his black tie and pouted his silent plea to have it done up for him. Button sighed and smiled, flicking the ebony silk around Jack's neck and using it to pull him down for a kiss. Jack let his hands wander down to Button's cute little backside, and got a sharp nip of teeth in return.

"Not now, Captain." he chastised playfully. "You really are insatiable, aren't you?"

Jack nodded in mock guilt, and let Button go. He gave him a cheery wave as he left and got ready for the day of work they had ahead of them.

They hadn't found that much on the URLs the images had provided for them, and Jack was starting to give up hope. Things were going painfully slowly on the ancient laptop – nothing had been done the day before as they had been waiting for one website to load – and when it had, the whole thing malfunctioned and they got nothing but a random collection of letters and symbols. But still Ianto Jones smiled to him from the nine pictures Jack had of him. His eyes – those cool, blue, inviting eyes – gave Jack the motivation to keep going. To find out what had happened, and when.

He pulled out one of the photographs now. He'd printed them all off when Lennie and Button weren't looking. Particularly Button.

It was Jack's favourite. Ianto Jones was wearing an ill-fitted suit and was sat behind a birch desk, smiling what Jack had called a 'Secret Smile'. Jack had the feeling it was a smile reserved for the photographer, who had offhandedly decided to take a random photo at work. It was quite a personal moment, in Jack's mind, and having it in his hands make Jack feel like it belonged to him.

A knock rattled on the door, and Lennie entered looking as exhausted as she had earlier. She'd been working pretty much non-stop to try and get the computers in Research and Information Retrieval up and running again, and the only time Jack had seen her not typing furiously or untangling masses of wires or throwing bits of computer around the room was when she finally gave in to her exhaustion and fell asleep where she was. Jack felt bad – she was putting herself through this for him, really – but he made sure she knew how grateful he was.

"How's it going?" he asked, hugging her.

"I've got two workstations up and going. Button's with them now while they're processing. Hopefully we'll have something that makes sense soon." she yawned.

"You're beyond knackered. You should get some sleep." Jack told her, turning her so she could see herself in a mirror. She certainly looked haggard and sleep-deprived, and she groaned loudly at her reflection.

"No time for sleep!" said a robotic voice behind them. A white droid bustled into the room. "What happened? Why the blood? Assessing content. DNA match: Captain Jack Harkness. Contains traces of blood, brain matter, plasma bullet type 3 and carbon residue. Is there an incident to report?"

Jack shuffled a little, and Lennie's exhausted state allowed her to notice the blood and brain splatter for the first time. "What the ..."

"Nothing to report." said Jack, cutting her off. He gave her meaningful look that told her he'd explain afterwards. The robot wheeled itself over to the mess and zapped at it with a laser. It evaporated, and the droid began its usual straightening and dusting, muttering under its breath about disrespect, uncleanliness and more disrespect. Jack left it to get on, guiding Lennie away and back towards Button's office.

"Tell me what you've been up to, then." he asked as they walked with linked arms. She yawned again.

"Trying to purge that virus out, mainly. It's stubborn. I think it might even contain elements of AI – it learns, I think. Learns what I'm doing to try and stop it so that it's prepared when it comes back for another attack. You're right, though, it must be targeted at us. It's being way to discriminate for it not to be tailored directly for our systems."

Jack 'mmmed' his agreement. They were approaching the office, and were just about to go inside when the door flung open.

"Jack!" shouted Button, his face twisted in concern. He looked totally different to fifteen minutes ago, when he had been in Jack's room. Stubble had grown over his cheeks and chin and his eyes were red rimmed with exhaustion. His uniform was crumpled and his hair was stood on end. "Thank god ... I was just running to fetch you!"

"You've found something?" asked Lennie, as Jack had suddenly lost his ability to speak.

"Yep." said Button. "I even locked myself in a Time Bubble to make sure nothing came in while I pieced it all together. I'm fed up of obstacles ... anyway ... it's all safe on an external hard drive that's not connected to any networks – not even the Internet. Completely cut off from sabotage. I've made several backup copies in several different formats, too."

"Excellent!" grinned Lennie. "How long were you in the Time Bubble? And why didn't I think of that?"

"About three days." said Button. "Sorry ... I should have called you two down ... but I didn't want to risk it. I got everything downloaded and sealed myself off ASAP. And ... god ... it's huge, Jack! It's huge! It shouldn't even be possible! And ... well ... I don't think I'd believe it if ... the other morning ... anyway ..." he babbled, then shuffled a little uncomfortable. "It's massive, Jack. Huge."

"Wh ... What's huge?" stammered Jack, moving to sit down next to Lennie on the couch Button was directing them to. He'd set up a digital projector, not feeling comfortable sending any signals through the air using the wireless HoloScreens. The projector flickered into life, and Jack's original photograph appeared on the screen.

"Shouldn't Diana be here, if this is a big reveal?" yawned Lennie, clearly too tired to care she and Jack were completely in the dark while Button had single-handedly pieced something together.

"She's busy. I buzzed her on the earpiece, but she's gonna have to catch up later." said Button, typing on a keyboard. "I've also ... I mean ... I really think that he should be here."

"Who?" asked Jack.

"James."

Lennie sat up. "You've invited James down?"

"Believe me Lennie, he really needs to see this. And I think maybe the man himself will be able to answer a few questions."

"James? Answer questions?" asked Jack. "Wha – you think he had something to do with this?"

"I do." said Button regretfully. "I've never met him ... but you hear the stories ... the rumours. And ... he's mixed up in this. I don't think he orchestrated it though." he gave a shifty look to the blank wall where his Mrs. Cooper interface was.

Jack noticed, but decided to let Button reveal everything he needed to in chronological order. Button went to stand by the projector screen, and shuffled a couple of note cards.

"I hope we get this finished before James gets here, though. I think it will make more sense that way ..." he cleared his throat, then pointed at the photograph projected on the screen. "Ianto Jones, born August 19th 1983. Average student, not really that exceptional. From what I can gather, there wasn't much on him even then. It's not until he died that he really began to make some ripples."

Jack raised an eyebrow. Maybe Button was a little jealous? Jack remembered Ianto Jones as being quite exceptional indeed.

"The Thames House Disaster." announced Button, pressing a remote control and watching the photograph disappear and a news report take its place. "No one knew in 2009 that there were aliens in Thames House. They were told it was an experimental leakage. Ianto Jones, and a large number of others, were killed by a virus released by these aliens as a warning. That's all. Snuffed out because someone with more power decided to be cruel and create a lot of meaningless death ... Anyway ... the Government felt bad, so built a memorial just outside the city centre. All the victims of the Thames House Disaster were buried there, and left undisturbed for nearly fifty years. Then ... it starts getting weird."

The screen changed again. Another news report, but from much later. Button took a sip of water before continuing. "The city was expanding. They needed the land, so they dug up the memorial with the intention of sending the remains back to their respective hometowns. Obviously, after fifty years, the caskets were in no state to be transferred anywhere ... so they decided to put the remains in new ones. Only ... when they opened the coffin that contained the remains of Ianto Jones ..."

"The body was gone?" volunteered Lennie.

"Nope. Weirder."

"It was a different body?" she offered. "Oh ... wait ... how would they have known?"

Button smiled grimly. "This is a photograph I managed to pull out of police records from that time on the case. It shows the body of similar remains found in the memorial and, next to it, the body of Ianto Jones. Remember: buried for fifty years."

The screen changed. There was a skeleton on the left hand side, brown and full of cavities. The joints had loosed and the ribs were lying flat, and the jaw was sickeningly slack and wide. On the right hand screen, was Ianto Jones. Jack was holding his breath, and Lennie was just staring at the screen.

Button spoke for them. "He hadn't even _begun_ decomposing."

"That's ..." gasped Lennie. "That's not possible! Something must have ... what the _hell_?"

"They found a discreet piece of alien technology hidden below the surface of the skin. It kept the body in stasis, not allowing it decompose. In fact, it even healed it a little. See the cut on the cheek?"

Sure enough, what had been a red scab when Jack had last seen it was now properly healed over and scarred. He rose to his feet, staring. "He's ... alive?"

Button looked away. "He was in the ground for fifty years. If the alien tech saved him from the virus – which I severely doubt it did, it just preserved the body - he'd have just suffocated again. I think it _just _preserved. There is no sign of decomposition or dehydration, so I think it just kept him in Ideal Stasis. Anyway ... it doesn't end there. If anything ... it gets ... well ... they removed the alien tech, and transported him to Cardiff. Only ... part of him never got here."

"Part of him?"

"During the transition from London to Cardiff, someone hacked open his head ... and stole his brain. The driver of the vehicle transporting the remains was one ... and this creeps me out ... one Rhys Williams. But ... by this point, Rhys Williams had been dead for twenty years."

Silence fell. The screen changed again. It showed Ianto Jones' head, split open, red, bloody and empty. Jack couldn't help but think, what with the way his head had been moved and his mouth allowed to fall open, it looked like he was screaming. He had to look away. "What else have you got?"

"Well, the police interviewed round for a bit. Searched through all kinds of rubbish. Then a witness came forward saying that they were more than certain the driver of the van had been a woman, not a man. Told him 'Rhys' was short for 'Rhiannon'. She'd come into his shop. He showed them the CCTV – of which I have a screencap, because I'm brilliant – and here she is:"

The screen flickered. "GWEN COOPER!" shouted Jack, staring at the grainy image.

"Gwen Cooper." agreed Button.

"But ..." began Lennie, rising to give Jack a hug. "What would the Great Gwen Cooper want with the brain of man whose been dead for fifty years?"

"No idea." said Jack, frowning. He turned away from them while the daggers behind his eyes tried to bring forward his tears.

"Someone has an idea." muttered Button. "The trail ... it was hard to follow. But I figured out all the places I needed to look. Realised what signatures I had to search for. It took hours. I'm beyond exhausted. I'm running on empty. The only thing that kept me going was getting to the bottom of this. The trail ran cold, but I've heated it up again. I've found everything I can but ... but all I've done is unearth more questions."

Jack crossed the room and hugged him. They broke apart, and Button caught him in a kiss before he could pull away. Jack gave in.

"Anyway ..." announced Button, untangling himself from Jack, who was now reluctant to let go. "Onwards!"

The projector screen changed again.

"So ... Gwen Cooper stole the brain of Ianto Jones. I'm also willing to bet that it was also she who implanted the alien tech to preserve the body until all the hububaloo about Thames House died down. I think - I'm sure - she had this planned before the death of Ianto Jones, but not specifically planned for him. When the hub was destroyed in 2009, a lot of the morgue went with it. The bodies floated out into the bay, and Torchwood registers were used to identify them. Obviously, they were frozen and preserved before then, but after they came out of the freezer ... they started melting. But, despite spending a hours in the water, none of them became waterlogged or bloated. All of them stayed the same. It was only when they dredged out that the officials noticed though: they all had their brains missing. Nearly 700 bodies, none of them with brains. All of them perfectly healthy aside from the fact they were very much dead."

The screen was flicking through photographs of dead people with their heads split open and empty. Jack recognized Suzie Costello and Toshiko Sato among them.

"All of them were implanted with this alien tech, according to the official documents. Which had been deleted, but not well enough for me to unearth them - even after a thousand years. Most of the officials were wiped very cleanly after this point - so really ... we've got somewhere ... kind of. But ... all I can think is ... well ... all I've done is answer one question, then unearthed a million others. And I don't know what the answers to those are ... but ... I know that they're hidden both in the Classified Archives and ... I think someone else knows ..."

A deep, smooth voice spoke behind them. "Didn't anyone ever tell you? You dig up the past ... all you get is dirty?"

Jack spun round. His heart leapt into his mouth. "Y-y-y-you!" he stammered.

Lennie was frowning. "James? What ... what are you ... you know something?"

James winked at her, then focussed his startling blue eyes back on Jack. The Captain had found his voice.

"You ... you're ... alive?"

"Sickening, isn't it?" replied James. "Oh, and you! Button, is it?" Button gave a quick nod, rooted to the spot, confused as to how Jack would know this man. "Get the fuck away from my man."

The last thing Jack registered as he dived in front of the plasma bullet was the look of pure hatred in cold, blue eyes. They sparkled like sapphires, reminding Jack of how much he hated this man.

Reminding Jack of how much he loathed Captain John Hart.


	6. Getting Somewhere

Jack awoke with a painful gasp. It hadn't been a dream. Captain John Hart was still there, still holding his smoking gun. Lennie was crouched on the floor nearby, watching him intently. Jack felt soft hands gently stroke his forehead and help him sit up. Struggling a little with still aching ribs, the Captain heaved himself upright. Button was knelt beside him, throwing daggering glares in the direction of John. Jack had thrown himself in time and taken the first bullet, but that didn't mean others wouldn't come.

"How the hell are you here?" he growled at John. John pointed at his Vortex Manipulator.

"Guessed when you'd be back. Got here a couple of years early, worked my way up the ranks. Not that it was particularly difficult, what with It being on my side."

"It?"

"That bloody computer." His glare faltered, and he lowered his gun. Shoulders drooping, he crouched down and slid the weapon across the floor in the Captain's direction. His tone changed. Almost pleading. "You don't understand It, Jack. It knows everything. It sees everything. Even though It's not here ... It knows."

Jack heaved himself to his feet, and John rose off his haunches. The blue eyes were begging. "I'm not my own man, Jack."

"I remember you saying those words before." muttered Jack, reproachful. "What makes you think I'll believe it?"

"I still love you."

John moved forward and kissed him. Jack remained motionless, and did not respond to the tongue that tried to find entrance to his mouth. Instead, he surreptitiously reached for the gun tucked into the back of his belt, and glanced over to Button. Button had gone rigid, and had looked away.

Jack stepped back and produced the gun. John seemed a little alarmed, but put his hands on the back of his head without being asked.

"You." said Jack. "Are going to tell me what. They. Did. To. The. Bodies."

"I can't tell you." said John, glancing at the blank Mrs. Cooper interface. Jack saw the movement.

"Gwen. She did this?"

"Yes."

"And you were involved?"

"I was dragged in. She was very ... persuasive ... and her son ... he was ... well, I couldn't say no to Ianto Williams, could I?"

Jack felt like spitting on him, but he would never sink so low. He cocked the gun. "The Mrs. Cooper interface. She's controlling everything?"

"Pretty much."

"Is there anywhere we can go where she won't hear?"

Button spoke up, bringing Jack's attention back on himself. "Not in this galaxy. The Mrs. Cooper interface expands across the entire Torchwood Empire – all CCTV, all bugs, any form of camera – she can access it all."

"There's a blind spot." piped up Lennie. "But ... it's in Classified Archives. We can't go there without clearance one ... and only the Archiver has access to that."

"What's the blind spot?" asked Jack, all too aware that Mrs. Cooper was listening and waiting.

"It's basically the heart of the computer. It's where the main circuits that hold the programming are stored. All the AI, all the backup, all the data. It's kept in one room in Classified."

John was smirking. "What do you think of the Archiver, Jack?"

"I ... what? It's a disgusting thing. I have nightmares about it."

"Me too!" said Button, eager to prove he and Jack had something in common. "Me and Jack call it the Big Beige Monster, don't we Jack?"

John smirked even wider. "I can assure you ... it has nothing on Eye-Candy."

Jack swung his fist and heard the crack of breaking teeth. Captain John grabbed his jaw groaning. "You deserved that." said Jack.

"Whatever." replied John.

"Hang on ... if 'James' here is in charge, can't he get clearance for the Classified Archives?" Jack asked Lennie, back on subject.

Lennie repeated herself. "Only the Archiver has clearance for the Classified Archives. And we can't persuade it to let us in because it's a computer and won't listen to any form of reason other than its programming."

"Can we force our way in?"

"There's a forcefield in the corridor. No living thing can get through." said Button. He needed to make sure he was useful for Jack, and also make sure Jack didn't forget he was there in the presence of his incredibly handsome ex.

"Well ..." pondered Lennie. "They could ..."

"What? Really?"

"Yes ... but ... well, after the forcefield takes out a life, it takes three seconds to recharge. That's a three second window in which anything could pass through."

"We're doing it." said Jack, turning on his heel and pulling open the door. He strode purposefully into the corridor and began his journey to the main area, which would then take them down to Archives. Lennie, John and Button followed at a trot. It occurred to Jack that Lennie hadn't mentioned him magically coming back to life yet, but put it down to exhaustion. Lennie probably had.

They went through the access door that led to the Archives without a hindrance. Walking for about 300 yards, a rhythmic hydraulic clunk and thud of metal distracted them. Then they met the Big Beige Monster. It moved towards them down the corridor, hunkering on its mismatched legs, its arms swinging. Since Jack had last seen it, it had had a side panel replaced. The side panel was too long, and made one of its 'shoulders' higher than the other, making it lope precariously and almost off balance. A thought struck Jack.

"You did that to it." he hissed.

John shrugged. "I wanted Archives crawling with hot young men – just like in your day."

Jack didn't rise to it.

"How. May. I. Assist. You. James?" asked the robot with its now wearing Cyberman voice box.

"I want clearance for the Classified Archives." said John, bold as brass.

"You. Need. Clearance. One."

"Then I give myself Clearance One." said John. "I'm in charge. My decision is final."

The Monster seemed to be calculating this tactic in its head. Jack felt a twinge of annoyance not using John's overlord status before. He felt Button's hand slide into his, and gave it a squeeze as the Monster moved its head from each member of the group to the next, before settling on Jack.

"You. May. Not. Have. Clearance. It. Is. Immoral."

"Immoral?" asked Jack, blank.

"Immoral ... There. Are. Things. Kept. In. Classified. That. Could. Take. Down. Worlds. Or. Cause. Multiple. Genocide. Humans. Cannot. Be. Trusted. I. Must. Not. Allow. You. Access. To. Such. Power."

"Archiver!" said Lennie, her voice filled with authority. "We just want to go to the heart of Mrs. Cooper. That's all. Come with us and supervise, if you must."

The Monster was calculating again. It's eyes were vacant holes that seemed unseeing yet bored through whatever they rested on. Jack hated it.

"You. Cannot. Access. Mrs. Cooper."

"She needs repairs." lied Lennie.

"Then. I. Will. Carry. Them. Out."

"She needs parts."

"You. Have. Brought. None."

"I need to measure what she needs, then these strong lads are going to go and fetch them."

Again, it was calculating. Jack took his chance. He flipped open the rusted front panel of its huge torso and fired a shot into the circuitry. He'd managed to take out its legs. It fell with a massive clang and thud, crying out as if in pain. All Jack could hear was a cybernised howl of anger.

The group ran, working on instinct. Someone may have heard the cry of the Monster and come to investigate, and there was no way to tell in the Archives if Mrs. Cooper had yet acted on them. Jack found her silence non too appeasing.

They ran and ran, until Lennie led them down a tunnel the branched off. Jack could clearly see the two grounds for the forcefield on either side of the tunnel, and the slightly blue hue of the barrier. Beyond it were two wooden doors.

"Wish me luck." he said jovially. Button gave him a kiss on the cheek. Jack ran straight into the forcefield.

At first it didn't hurt ... but then it really did. He didn't know whether or not he screamed, or if the pain was so great his vocal chords had frozen. He felt heat and cold all at once, and was fairly sure that smell of bacon frying was actually his own skin. He decided to add this to his list of Deaths To Not Do Again.

~*~*~*~

And then he was alive again. He was in a totally different room, suggesting he'd been carried some way. There were computer towers and stone walls, lights flashing and things were whirring and beeping.

"Jack!" he heard Button say. "Are you alright?"

Lennie was staring at him, probably realising that the incident earlier hadn't just been her mind playing tricks on her.

"I can't die." said Jack simply.

"Well, you can." John pointed out. "You just don't stay dead for that long."

"Shut up." snapped Button, helping Jack to his feet.

"Right." said Jack, trying to move on before John and Button started anything. "So ... this is the heart of Mrs. Cooper?"

"Yep." yawned Lennie.

"The Blind Spot?"

"Yahuh."

Button touched Jack's arm. "Why did she let us come here?"

John snorted. "She'll have wanted us here. I'm guessing she was hoping for the Archiver to take us out when we got here – or maybe even before. I dunno. She let us get here ... so ... yeah ..."

"Maybe she's planning something up above." offered Button. Silence fell, and all of them raised their eyes to the ceiling. Jack cleared his throat.

"John ... you have to tell us what the _hell_ happened back in the twenty-first century. Why were the Torchwood brains stolen?"

"The brains were stolen because Gwen Cooper was a psychopath." John spat. "She was obsessed with you. Completely. She was stealing brains because ... because ... well ... she was stealing them to experiment."

"Experiment with what?" asked Button.

"Resurrection."

Button's mouth fell open, and Lennie gasped.

"Not just resurrection, though." continued John Hart. "Immortality. She had it in her head she was going to figure out how to live forever ... but she failed. None of the experiments worked. The brains all fried and turned to goo, so she did the best she could with her Technical Genius of the age – her elder son, Jack Williams, who she didn't give credit on anything, even the memorial, in case this all got dug up. She erased Ianto Jones too, because he'd been on the news so much, what with her funny little alien tech keeping him spick and span for fifty years six feet under."

"This is too much." breathed Jack. "Gwen ... she would never ..."

"I saw Tosh and Owen die." said Mrs. Cooper's voice. "And decreed I never would. I would never, ever leave you , Jack." A full length hologram of Gwen Cooper appeared before them.

Jack stared at it, noticing how it had gone from talking about Gwen Cooper in third person to first.

"What did you do? What have you _done_?"

"I ask myself that so many times. And I regret every day I remain alive. But It won't turn me off. Morals, apparently." she added sniffily.

"Alive? I thought ... you're artificial!" exclaimed Lennie.

"No." Gwen shook her head. "The only way the brains could live was if they were supported by a computer. I couldn't keep bodies alive, either. Just brains. The bodies would decompose while the brain lived on. Open cabinet B6."

Lennie moved to the appropriate cabinet. The hydraulic locks moved back on Gwen's command, and the door swung open. Lennie gasped and turned away, bile burning her throat. Inside a tank within the cabinet was a brain.

There was a monitor on the tank relaying information about brainwaves and thought patterns, and every inch of the grey matter was covered in tiny pin-wires. They all pulsated with a slightly yellow energy, and the brain itself pulsed with them.

Jack turned back the hologram. "You're sick. You're no better than a Cyberman."

"I know. I was foolish. I was so in love with you, so blinded by you. Your leaving destroyed what little moral compass I had left."

"It's my fault." muttered Jack.

"No, it's not." Button whispered, trying to comfort him. Jack shot him a look of pure venom, not sure why he was hating Button, but hating him anyway.

"It's my fault, Jack." said Gwen. "I ... you have to understand ... I had so many failed experiments. All in all, only two worked. Myself ... and ... God! I thought you'd be so grateful! I thought you'd love me ... I thought ... it doesn't matter. But you see, It controls everything. The second you got here, I wanted to tell you. But this is the Blind Spot on my surveillance systems. It can't see. But It will know. It's coming ... can't you hear It?"

Jack listened. They all did. It was distant, but drawing closer.

_CLUNK___

_screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech___

_CLUNK___

____

_CLUNK___

__

"What the hell is that?" whispered Button. Jack put a protective arm around him.

"It's coming, Jack! It's coming for me!" shouted Gwen Cooper. Jack turned to her.

"What is?"

"The other experiment ... it was ... - oh! It hates me! It hates me so much! – the experiment that survived ... it's ... it was ... It was _Ianto_!!!!"

Button fell away from Jack and the Captain stepped closer to the hologram.

_CLUNK___

_screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech___

_CLUNK___

____

_CLUNK___

__

"Where is he? What did you do to him? Is he alive?"

"Yes ..." The image flickered. Sparks were flying around the towers. "God Jack ... I'm going to die!"

"Where's Ianto? Tell me! Please!"

"John knew all along. He's in the Archive –"

Gone.

With a final sputter, the hologram disappeared. An error message took its place – a pre-recorded automated message offering apologies for the delay in Mrs. Cooper's systems.

_CLUNK!___

_SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH___

_CLUNK!___

__

Button pulled at Jack to make him move, trying to get him to run with Lennie and John who had already headed out the door.

"He's in the Archive." breathed Jack, deciding not to give in to his anger at John just yet. "He's been kept alive, and his brain's in the Archive!"

"Er ... yeah. Great. Jack, honey: we need to run." pointed out Button.

"Oh yeah!" said Jack, beaming. He turned and legged it out the door.

They were no further than the first corridor when the Monster stopped them in their tracks. It had dragged itself, the _CLUNK_ of its one gargantuan arm echoing around the tunnels and the screech of its body scratching into the white floor. In its spare hand, loose wires were sparking.

It had reached into a maintenance hatch and dragged out the wiring of Mrs. Cooper.

"I. Am. Sorry." it croaked. "I. Am. Under. Orders."


	7. Chased

Jack shouted at them all to run and split up. Lennie ran with him, while John and Button left them at the first fork. The Archiver heaved and dragged behind them, leaving a long trail of beige paint and deep scratches in the white floors of the tunnels. Jack didn't look back, he kept running, his hand holding on to Lennie's arm to keep her close.

The first door they came to, Lennie suggested they hid inside. "No." said Jack, urging her on. "Too predictable."

They chose the third door down, hurrying inside and crossing the latch closed. It wasn't strong, but it might give some warning should the Archiver try and get inside. Jack could hear it distantly, and it seemed to be getting further away. He thought of Button and John, realising it had picked the side of the fork they had gone down.

~*~*~*~

"Won't hiding behind the first door we come across be a bit predictable?"

"So predictable it's unpredictable." replied John.

"Will the Monster think like that?"

John thought about it for a second. "Probably not. Next door along?"

The next one was locked, and the Archiver was getting closer. The _clunks_ and _screeches_ of its movements getting quicker and more frantic. It was getting louder and louder at an alarming pace.

Button was running alongside John, and instinctively batted John's hand away when he'd tried to clasp his own. "Play nice!" John had goaded. Button just scowled and concentrated on getting away from the Monster. He was terrified, and wanted Jack, but he'd never admit it.

They reached a dead end with three doors leading off it. They split, the first two doors refusing to give. They both charged heavily at the third door, hammering and kicking and throwing their weight against it but still it would not give.

"You're supposed to be James!" gasped Button. "You're supposed to know all the access codes!"

_CLUNK_

"Well I never really saw the need to memorise the Archive ones!" snapped John.

_SCREEEEECH_

"Thought you'd depend on the bloody droid did ya?"

_CLUNK ... SCREEEEEEEEECH_

"HA! I'd never depend on that _thing_!"

"You knew it was AI! You were trying to murder it!"

_CLUNKSCREEEEEECH_

"And now it's trying to murder me!"

__

"I wouldn't blame it! Look at the state of it. I've been here three months and met it twice, and it's enough to convert me to one of those protest groups that say AI Robots should have working rights!"

_CLUNK SCREECH CLUNK SCREECH CLUNK SCREECH_

John sniggered, lowering his voice dangerously. "You really don't have a clue, do you?"

"What do you mean?"

Hart reached out to touch his face, and Button flinched away. "Awww." cooed John. "Aren't you precious?"

They both seemed to realise the silence pressing in upon them. They turned, and there, blocking the exit of the tunnel; staring straight back at them, with empty black eyes and cruel, long fingers digging into the floor, was the Big Beige Monster itself.

Captain John Hart grabbed Button by the lapels and kissed him.

~*~*~*~

Jack gave up keeping watch by the door. The Monster had gone after the others, and in a couple of minutes they would go after it. But first, Jack had something he needed to do.

A computer was whirring in a corner, and Lennie was typing quickly, her fingers barely brushing the keys.

"It's negative, Jack." she replied. "I can't find any record of a living brain in the Archives. Are you sure she was talking about Torchwood Three Archives?"

"It's the only Torchwood Real Gwen would know to hide things. Can you try different key words?"

"I don't want to spend too long searching on here." she said edgily. "It's wirelessly connected to the Archiver: it'll know where we are."

"I took out it's legs." Jack told her. "It won't get here any time soon."

"It's a robot, Jack. It's arms aren't exactly going to get tired."

"Just try one more time? For me?" Jack pleaded. Lennie conceded, giving the door an edgy glance. Her fingers flew over the keys again.

"Oh ... what the-! It's blocked me out Jack." she groaned. Jack groaned too, but was silenced by the heavy sliding of deadlocks within the door behind them. Lennie frowned. "Deadlocks? These doors have deadlocks?"

"Well, we never know what we're going to be keeping behind them." Jack explained. "Can you get us out again?"

"I can try." she yawned. Her lack of sleep made her look like death warmed up, but Jack was proud of how she soldiered on. As she worked, he began pacing and thinking. Somehow, John and Gwen had become colleagues. She had made him travel a thousand years into the future. Why? Hang on – John seemed to despise her. Had he run away to the future? Was he somehow tied to Torchwood? What influence did the Archiver have? Whose orders was it following if not John's?

At that moment, Jack managed to slip on some spilt oil, smacking his head on the ground and knocking him out cold.

He wrenched his eyes open, the brightness of the world nearly blinding him. Ianto was there.

~*~*~*~

Button shoved John back against the wall, wiping him off his mouth in disgust. "What the _hell_ are you playing at?" he shouted.

"Me? I'm getting my cover story sorted."

Confused, Button took a step back. "What?"

"I can tell them the epic tale of how bravely you fought the Monster, trying to keep it away from me, your valiant leader. I had to leave you – oh woe to me! – but your efforts were not in vain, kid. I promise you an extra nice font on the Torchwood Memorial."

"You ... can't ..." stammered Button, his knees suddenly not wanting to hold him up. His stomach turned and his vocal chords failed to function properly. "What ...'ave you done to me?" he managed.

John pointed to his lips. "Paralyzing Lipgloss. You've got your lovely Captain Jack to thank for that one ... oh no – I forgot! You'll be dead by the time he finds you in this maze – if the Monster doesn't get you first, of course."

The sound of the metal body behind them shifting distracted him. "Come on!" he goaded the robot. "Come and get Jack's new little toy! Here boy!"

The Archiver stretched out its longer arm, curling its fingers to grip into the white floor, and hauled itself forward.

~*~*~*~

_"This is a dream."___

_"Then it is a good dream." ___

_"Trust you to quote _Lord of the Rings_ at a time like this."___

_Ianto smiled, his blue eyes twinkling. "Any excuse to think of Liv Tyler. God, I wish I could have met her."___

_Jack was lying somewhere soft – his bed, back in his Hub, in his Torchwood. Ianto was sat leaning over him. Taking care of him.___

_This wasn't the cobbled together Ianto that Jack had become accustomed to seeing in his dreams, with blurred features that slowly dripped from his memory. This Ianto was crystal clear and solid. Jack reached to touch his hand. It felt warm under his skin. "You ... where are you?"___

_Ianto's smile faded. His eyes clouded over as he looked away. ___

_"I'm lost, Jack."___

_"No!"___

_"I'm sorry. You ... you have to stop this. You have to let go ... I know ... I know I told you not to forget me but ... for the sake of everything ... please. Let me go."___

_A tear spilled down Ianto's cheek, and Jack wiped it away with his thumb, caressing his face with his palm. "Not yet. I can't ... I need ... I need to find your ... your ... you-know-what ... and ... I won't stop looking. Ever."___

_Ianto rose and moved away, turning his back to the Captain. Jack lifted himself to an upright position and reached for Ianto's hand. "This ... this is a psychic projection, isn't it?" he whispered softly. Ianto turned to him, more tears having rolled down his face and his teeth were biting his lower lip. He nodded.___

_Jack closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Where are you?"___

_A woman's voice floated through the vision. "Jack! Jack ... are you alright?"___

_"You have to go back now." said Ianto, pulling his had away. "You have to go back, and you have to leave Torchwood. Leave Earth. Leave me, Jack."___

_"I can't."___

_"You have to find a new life. You have to move on." Ianto was speaking faster now, the perfectly detailed image of Jack's quarters blurring and fading. "I love you."___

_"Please! Tell me where you are!" Jack cried. ___

_"I'm in your heart, Jack."___

_"Don't be a sentimental twat! Where are you? Please ... please, Ianto!"___

_All that was left of the vision was Ianto's torso, and it was quickly fading into the blackness that Jack feared. Ianto was calculating in his head, the way Ianto did, and he gave Jack one last, fleeting smile.___

_"You know where I am Jack, you just don't know you know. You cannot find was is not lost and ... what's not lost is not worth saving ..."___

_"You ... you just said you __**were**__ lost! I don't understand. No! Come Back!" ___

_His hand closed on nothingness, and he himself was fading.___

_Voices were echoing through Jack's head as it pieced itself back together again. He could hear Gwen: "God Jack ... I'm going to die!" she shouted at him. ___

_Button's laugh cut through her anguish. ___

_"I still love you." muttered John. ___

_"Alive? ... I thought you were artificial!" Lennie was shouting to Mrs. Cooper. ___

_"He's in the Archive!" said Jack's own voice.___

_"Er ... yeah. Great. Jack, honey: we need to run." replied Button.___

_"He's in the Archive!" repeated Jack, his voice echoed as he began to properly come round.___

_"Er ... yeah. Great. Jack, honey ...."___

_"He's in the Archive!"___

_"Er ... yeah. Great ..."___

_"...the Archive!"___

_"Er ... yeah."___

_"Archive!"___

_"Er ..."___

_"Archive!"___

_"Er ..."_

Jack gasped and clutched the cheek Lennie had forcefully been slapping. He felt dizzy, the voices still whirring around his head buzzing and jostling for attention.

~*~*~*~

"Here boy! C'mon! Come and get 'im" John was singing.

Button couldn't move. His eyes were the only thing he had any sense of, and he could see the Archiver moving towards him. It paused, cocking it's head, calculating in the way it did, then turned its head to John. John took his chance, leaping over it in one bound and clearing its mass with little difficulty. He shot off down the corridor, tossing a "Bah Bye, Buttony-Bob!" behind him.

Terrified, Button stared back at the Monster. He'd had nightmares like this – cornered by the Thing, defenceless. He'd always been assured it would never harm a living thing – but here it was. It seemed torn between going after John or going for its paralysed prey. Button felt as though tears should be washing down his face, but his paralysed tear ducts couldn't allow it. He thought of all the things he'd never done, all the things he'd intended to do but never had time, and of all the things he would never be remembered for. But most of all, he thought of Jack. Captain Jack Harkness, who he had known for only five days (or eight, depending on whether or not he was counting the three days spent in the Time Bubble), and who he already knew he could never imagine his insignificant life without having known.

He thought also of James, or John as Jack called him, and how if James had done this to the robot ... might it go after him? Was it programmed with ideals of vengeance? James had tried to murder it. James had humiliated and mutilated it. James had driven it do whatever it was doing now. Surely, it would go for him ...

There was a scrape of metal and a cybernised whine.

The Monster had made its decision.

It moved towards Button.

~*~*~*~

Lennie had managed to get the deadlocks off the door, overriding the Archiver's command with her human access codes. Jack hugged her, still biting back tears from his visit from Ianto's ghost. He hadn't told her about it. They had enough to concentrate on. Getting Button and John away from the Beige Monster, for a start.

"Ready?" asked Lennie, holding the door open ajar and waiting for Jack.

"Ready."

They bolted out of the door, hurtling back down the corridor as fast as they could. Lennie's plimsolls whispered across the floor and Jack's shined shoes clattered as he ran. He missed his army boots. Now_that_ was footwear that really made an entrance ...

They u-turned down the fork that Button and John had taken, flat-out running. Suddenly, Jack registered that Lennie had frozen to the spot. He jogged back to her.

"I can't hear anything." she said. Jack listened.

"Maybe it's paused. Or maybe Button and John took it out."

"Yeah ... but ..." she seemed so distant, almost staring into space. "It's funny, isn't it? How exercise gets the blood flowing and the brainwaves going?"

"Er ... okay."

"I kept looking at his photo thinking ... 'god ... he's so familiar' .... but the penny never dropped ..."

"What are you talking about?" a metallic shift distracted Jack for a second, but still he stayed by Lennie.

"I thought ... I thought he had one of those faces, y'know ..."

"Who ... what are you ... Ianto?"

"Yeah ... I've just realised where I've seen him before."

~*~*~*~

If he wasn't paralysed, he'd probably have wet himself. How undignified.

The Monster was hauling itself over, approaching slowly – it seemed almost wary. Maybe it thought its prey being so incapacitated was too good to be true. It was inches from him now, the cold radiating from its metal touching Button's skin and bringing up gooseflesh. Button would have laughed at the misfortune: he couldn't control his muscles, but he would feel everything that was about to happen to them. In his mind, he clenched his eyes shut.

The first touch surprised him. Cold metal fingers stroked down his cheek, gentle. Almost a caress.

"You. Are. Poisoned." said the Monster.

Did it sound sad, or was Button's mind just clouded over in fear? It didn't matter. He couldn't react. The Archiver heaved itself upright, leaning itself against the wall by Button's head. He could hear the scrape of it opening up its front compartment, the rust falling off and lightly peppering his head. There was a metallic whirr, and something cold touched his lip, then his tongue. A drop of liquid dripped into his mouth, and the cold hand of the Monster pushed his chin up to keep the drop inside.

Instantly, Button found he could feel functioning in his tongue again. He swilled the saliva around his mouth and soon he could swallow. He let whatever the Monster had given him fall down his throat, and accepted another drop of the stuff. It was slow working, from the inside out, and he couldn't walk. Before he knew it, however, the Archiver had lifted him through the air and placed him on his back.

"Why ... why are you helping me?" he asked, his vocal chords finally letting him speak.

The Archiver ignored him, and began heaving them both in the direction John Hart had run away in.


	8. John

"Lennie? Lennie, come on ... where have you seen him?" Jack was pleading. Lennie swivelled her eyes to him.

"God ... I'm tired." she laughed. She collapsed into Jack's arms, already snoring before their bodies touched.

Jack heard running footsteps behind him, and turned to see John hurtling in their direction. He gently lay Lennie on the ground, and turned to meet him. The other Captain stopped in front of him, panting. "God, Jack!" he said. "I had to leave him ... it's too powerful ..."

"You ... left ... you left Button!" Jack realised, and threw himself down the corridor. The silence was creeping into his skin already. He looked behind him as he ran, seeing that John was already cradling Lennie's head, didn't bother telling him to stay by her.

The corridor forced him left, and about thirty feet away from him was the Archiver. He took the blaster from his waistband and cocked it ready to fire, faltering when he realised that Button was clinging to its back. The Monster did not stop when it saw him, but seemed to move faster.

"It's alright, Jack." croaked Button. "I think ... I think it wants John."

Jack frowned. The Thing was still moving towards him determinedly, abruptly stopping about a three feet from Jack. It raised its arm, and Jack instinctively re-aimed his weapon. It ignored him, and lifted Button from its back and plonked him on his feet. He swayed a little, and Jack caught him bodily. Hugging him close, he kissed his mouth.

Six rounds of plasma bullets landed neatly in the Monster's chest.

"No Jack!" screamed Button.

"I didn't do anything!" shouted Jack, spinning round.

~*~*~*~

The sound of the shots echoed through the tunnels, and Jack's already muzzed brain was telling him he could hear voices. Gwen's voice. The sound reverberations shook his ears and his old brain managed to create words in his mind.

"Archiver, Jack." Gwen whispered through the echo.

~*~*~*~

John Hart was stood, proudly aiming a smoking gun. He was roughly holding Lennie up by her waist, a bruise forming on her temple. There were tears in her eyes, and vomit on her shirt.

Button was scrambling by the pile of metal, pushing it to look at the damage. The lights of its Cyberman voice box were flashing, but only a low, intermittent whine was escaping. Jack moved into John's line of fire, seeing that he was now aiming at Button.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" Jack demanded. "What's going on?"

"I think ..." said John. "I need to go back to murder rehab." He turned the gun on Lennie and Jack's heart stopped when he heard the shot. Lennie, however, had chosen the second before to lose all strength and drop to the ground, the hot plasma singing her ear a little. Jack grabbed her and dragged her close at lightning speed, and John looked nothing but smug.

"Captain ..." groaned Lennie.

Jack shot John in the thigh, and watched him collapse and writhe in agony. Lennie was trying to drag herself to the Archiver. The woman really was in a complete mess. Exhausted, beaten and sick. Jack helped her, ignoring John for the time being – but making sure he'd removed his weapon.

"I n-never thought ..." heaved Lennie, running her fingers over the still-hot bullet holes. The Monster seemed to be watching her, waiting for her to say something. It tried to push her away, but the circuits inside had broken and only one shoulder and its head could move. "I n-never thought ... and when you said ... human brain ... but ... I looked inside it a thousand times ... nothing ..."

"What? Take your time, Lennie. Just tell us what you need to. It's alright, shhh. C'mon now." Jack muttered, stroking her hair soothingly, crouching by her. Button was watching them, and settled himself on Lennie's other side. The Monster gave a low-pitched whine, sounding slightly panicked.

"When I fir-first came here ... two years ago ... it was di-different ... The Archiver ... I told y-you ... it was humanoid?" Jack nodded at her, still frowning. An idea of what she was saying began to seed in his mind, but he ignored it. It was too awful to contemplate. The Monster's whine changed pitch, as if trying weakly to drown her out. "The ... head ... the head ... it's head ... _his_ head ... before he became _it_ ... when people could s-see he h-had f-feelings ..." She gulped in air as tears ran down her face. Reaching out, she opened one of the front doors of the Archiver's torso, shushing it soothingly before opening the other one. It was slowly shaking its head, its whine becoming a mantra of 'no'.

"His head ... it was ... it was the man in the ph-photograph ... it was modelled on Ianto Jones! – but ... no brain inside ... can't be ... checked ... a thousand times ... repairs ..."

Jack's head was aching and the blood was pounding through his ears. His mind was throbbing, considering what she was saying. "But ... just ... no! No!" he moved forward, and yet again the robot whined louder. Jack shoved his hands into its torso, sparks flying. He fried a little, but it wasn't too bad, and then he found it: a glint of silver, tucked away in the top of the Monster's right shoulder. He froze.

For the first time, Jack listened to the voices. The memories that had been trying to piece themselves together, to make him deal with them.

_Good knowledge of the Torchwood computer systems._

Clearance Number One.

Access to Classified Archives and the heart of Mrs. Cooper.

It had set the virus on them.

It had tried to stop them getting to Mrs. Cooper.

It had gone after John and Button – no, after John.

Because Mrs. Cooper and John knew the truth.

Mrs. Cooper and John knew what 'it' really was.

"He's in the Archive!"

"Er .. Jack ..."

"Archive!"

"Er..."

It was the whispering, apologetic voice of Gwen Cooper running through his mind that forced him to raise his eyes to the empty holes in the Cyberman helmet. _"Archiver, Jack."_

He flicked the switch on the small piece of metal, and watched in horror as a complicated piece of circuit board flickered out of existence and took the form of a brain, jarred and wired similarly to Gwen's, tucked away in the right shoulder. He had hidden his brain behind a Chameleon Circuit, disguised it as intrinsic technology ... no maintainer had needed to touch or replace it, it never having malfunctioned.

"Ianto ..." Jack whimpered.

The Archiver let out an agonised howl, unable to hide itself, unable to move itself, unable to do anything but scream its despair in one long, cybernized note.

This was what had made Lennie vomit, Jack realised. She was hurling again, away from the group. Button had an iron grip on Jack's shoulder, not realising, not caring – just staring at the slowly pulsating brain in the old hunk of beige metal in pure horror.

A laugh broke the moment. Jack turned and rounded on John, rage filling every fibre of his existence.

"NO!" shouted the Archive- ... Ianto.

"Why?" Roared Jack. "Look what he did to you, Ianto!"

"Not. Him. Gwen. Cooper. Chip. Brain. John. Dead. Cooper. Still. Lives. In. Him."

John's face smiled up at him. "You don't believe that, do you Jack?" He was still clutching his bleeding thigh and wincing slightly.

Captain Jack Harkness didn't need to respond with words. His blue eyes glittered with everything he had suffered over the past week – no, over the past millennia – and all the blame was being laid on the part-Gwen-part-John-part-Zombie in front of him.

The smile faded from John Hart's face. Jack raised the two guns. "I love you." said John.

"You never had a chance with me, Gwen."

Jack fired, and he kept firing until the tendons in his fingers seized up and what was left of 'James Bond' would have to be cleaned up with a mop.

The Captain collapsed onto his knees, putting his arms around the hunk of metal that was now his Ianto. "Why didn't you tell me?" he whispered, putting his head where the shoulder would be.

Lennie and Button exchanged a glance, retreating further down the corridor and out of earshot. Button's jaw was set, but he knew he was to stand aside. Jack needed to be alone with his ... whatever he was now.

"Please, Ianto." Jack begged. "I saw you ... when I first got here ... why didn't you tell me?"

Ianto said one word.

"**Ashamed."**

~*~*~*~

Jack was still weeping openly as the maintenance workers heaved Ianto onto the trolley with very little grace. Button and Lennie had returned having heard voices, Lennie being practically carried by Button and both with tear-tracks on their faces. A housekeeping droid was tutting over the pool of goo that had been 'John Cooper'.

Jack walked beside the trolley where he hoped Ianto could see him, and stayed by his side until they got him to a private hospital suite. Jack had had a lengthy argument with the trolley pushers almost the entire journey, them saying robots and droids are to go down to the workshop, and Jack defending the fact he was still human. When the workers had seen the pulsing brain, they too had turned their own stomachs out and been almost beaten by the housekeeper robots.

Once he and Jack were alone again, for some reason Jack felt the need to put a blanket over Ianto and kiss his metal cheeks and stroke where his hair should have been. _What else was he supposed to do?_thought Ianto. _Lovingly offer to oil my joints?_

Ianto seemed amused by him, but couldn't do anything about it so stilled his protests. He couldn't feel the kisses or the tender touch or the light caress, but it helped Jack and therefore it must help him.

"You. Go. Sleep." Ianto commanded. Jack shook his head.

"You'll try and get yourself turned off." replied Jack solemnly. "I'm staying right here."

"Oh my GOD!!" exclaimed a female voice behind him. Jack registered Diana throwing herself at him. "I came as soon as I heard ... God ... it's horrific ... it's wrong ... it's ..."

"I. Have. Feelings." Ianto croaked.

"I meant what they did to you." said Diana, in a low, gentle voice. "You could have told anyone ... in the past ... how many years?"

"Nine. Hundred. And. Sixty. One."

Diana's mouth clamped shut.

"I. Know. I. Do. Not. Look. Too. Bad. For. My. Age. Do. I?"

"We'll be off then." Jack jumped, and turned to see Button with and unconscious Lennie slung over his shoulder.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow, Button." said Jack, giving him a small smile. Button returned the smile and nodded.

"Er ..." Button hesitated. "Thanks, um ... Ianto. For saving me."

No reply.

"Ianto?"

No reply.

Jack shoved himself into the Cyber helmet's field of vision. "Ianto?"

"Sorry. Distracted."

"With what?" asked Jack.

"Move. Jack. I. Can't. See. His. Fantastic. Arse."

Jack and Diana sniggered, and Button went bright red and made a hasty get away.

"Y'know ..." said Jack, leaning into Ianto conspiratorially. "I've had 'im."

"No. Really?"

"Yeah!"

"My. Sarcasm. Meter. Just. Exploded."

~*~*~*~

The next morning, Lennie came bounding into Ianto's hospital room with a mountain of paperwork in her arms. The whole of Torchwood Three had been buzzing with the previous day's events, and Lennie was covered in lipstick marks from where she'd been worshipped as a hero. She was grinning madly at Jack, waving a massive envelope for Ianto to see.

"Look! Everyone's signed you a card, Ianto!" she beamed, much recovered from her living dead state from the day before.

"How. Delightful." said Ianto. Jack opened it for him, and propped it on the bedside table for him to read once they got his limbs working again.

"Ooh! And Button says he wants to talk to you, Jack." Lennie told him. Jack stiffened a little, and flashed a smile at Ianto. They had spoken at length about Button the night before, Ianto admitting he knew that they had struck up a relationship and Jack telling him everything about it. Ianto didn't seem hurt; he just accepted that Jack had thought him dead and moved on. He had expected nothing more or less. Besides, he really was cute as a button. Ianto definitely would have, had he a body to do it with.

Conversation had been hard going at first, Jack having to learn to be patient as Ianto could only speak slowly in single-word sentences. They had talked all night, though. Jack telling him about his adventures, Ianto describing what it had been like to wake up fifty years after dying, not knowing where he was or why everything was so cold.

He didn't notice the cold anymore, he said. And he'd got used to the fact he couldn't feel when someone touched him, or feel when he touched someone else.

When he'd first been cybernised, he looked like a badly-drawn C3P0. He'd asked for Darth Vader, but apparently Jack Williams – Gwen Cooper's erased eldest son and technical genius – couldn't afford the leather or the overpriced asthma medication. Capes were too showy, anyway, sulked Ianto.

Jack was familiar with Ianto's speech patterns and conversation. He'd missed his sense of humour most of all, and his caring for others. Especially Jack. The Captain apologised for leaving the planet – if he'd have stayed, none of this would have happened. Ianto had been quiet for a while, then told him to shut up and get over it. If none of this would have happened, he wouldn't have Jack now.

As the conversation steered towards romantic interests, Jack was surprised to learn that even as a robot, Ianto had managed to marry. A woman called Rosemary, who didn't care that he was a cyborg. She was feisty and headstrong, and met her end in a massive showdown, all guns blazing and explosions everywhere.

"That. Was. How. I. Wanted. To. Go." Ianto said – had he had breath, he'd have sighed it. "Instead. I. Got. Space. AIDS."

Jack made his way towards Button's office, wondering how the conversation would go. He found the man in question leafing through printouts, feet on the coffee table, finally clean shaven and relaxed. Jack loitered in the doorway, and gave a tentative knock.

"So ...?" said Button, as Jack settled on the sofa and joined him. "I'm guessing that whatever arrangement we had ... is void?"

Jack nodded.

"Okay." shrugged Button. "I've been thinking Lennie's more my type anyway."

"Lennie's lovely. And ... yeah. I think she is more your type. What you need. Stability."

Button nodded, pondering this for a second. "You were fun though." he said, smiling a little slyly.

"You always have a good time with the Captain!" grinned Jack.

"Eugh. You're talking in third person."

"Who said I was talking about me and not just a certain part of my anatomy?"

Button sniggered, and sat forward on the sofa. "Anyway ... I've got some things I think I should discuss with you. About Ianto."

"What things?" said Jack, brow furrowed.

"Well ... he's not a robot. Not really. I'm fairly certain we can get him registered as a cyborg. That means he's human, and therefore must get a wage and all relevant Intelligent Living Species Rights. Which also means ..." he flicked through a couple more sheets of paper. "Yep! Torchwood, as the guilty party in his predicament, have to provide him with the best cyborg technology they can afford. Which is_the_ best. I already spoke with Lennie. If she can do a couple of experiments, see how his brain's wired, she might even be able to hook him up so that he can feel sensations again – touch and taste and hot and cold and stuff. If they can do it with transsexual genitalia, we can do it with Ianto."

"You mean ... he'll be able to enjoy sex?" asked Jack.

Button's eyes rolled. "Always on your mind, isn't it?"

"Oh! No! We were talking last night ... he can't drink coffee, he can't eat pizza and he can't shag. And those were his favourite things. If you can get taste back ... and like you said, they've already got cyborg genitalia to connect sensation to the brain ..."

"Depends show it works though. He may need a nervous system."

"Mmm. Can't Lennie make one?"

"Probably."

They fell silent for a minute. Jack took a deep breath. "Thanks ... all this ... it'll make his life so much easier."

"Yeah." agreed Button. "Well ... I am the best researcher this side of the universe. It only took five minutes ... but ... he saved my life. I was paralyzed ... my major organs were shutting down ... he could have left me and gone after ... _him_ ... but he stayed and took care of me."

Jack smiled dreamily. "Never left a man behind." With a start, Jack jumped to his feet. "Best be getting back. I don't want him left alone in case he tries to shut himself down ... I'll explain everything you've found. He might perk up a bit ... the hope of being able to see his toes again may just bring him out of his beige depression."

Button rose to kiss him goodbye. "Why did they paint him beige?"

"Beige? On Ianto? Have any idea how _wrong_ that is?"

Button smiled, hesitated, then pressed their lips together. Jack held him close as their tongues danced together for the last time, then broke away from him. They hugged, and Jack turned to leave.

"Goodbye, Jack."

"See ya ... Ivan."

Jack ducked as a keyboard narrowly missed his head, and threw himself down the corridor laughing as angered shrieks of 'Never, ever use my name!' echoed all around him.


	9. Epilogue

_The idea is to make him feel as human as possible, Captain Harkness. With mild experimentation, I'm sure we could manage a practically-human experience. Normally, in such cases as this, there is the worry that the victim's body will reject the cybernised parts, but since we are building a completely new body, it's just the wiring of the brain we'll need to worry about – you have a technical expert on that, I presume? Good, good – now we're going to begin with the very basics. Build a titanium skeleton based on photographs and his height and ideal weight. This will then hold anatomically correct organs, muscles, eyes, tendons and also a cybernized 'nervous system' of wires that will take information around the 'body' and also carry information to the brain – including sensations, which is something very important to our cyborg customers and something we spend a great deal of time and money in developing – then, we will add the brain, allow him to test out his new body so that we know the areas to improve. Finally, we will add teeth, nails, hair and synthetic skin. He will have a totally anatomically correct cybernized body as close as possible to his original one, all totally replaceable and upgradable. _

Jack listened to the woman spouting reassuring babble for about ten minutes. Basically, what she was saying was that Ianto would be human again, just a little bit more indestructible. Most importantly, though, is that he would be able to feel (and enjoy sex) again. His need to be warm was also being catered for, a whole extra little piece of technology hidden in his abdomen that would act as a thermostat and keep his new body warm. They were even giving him red plasma in false tubing and a beating heart to give the illusion of a circulatory system.

His voice wouldn't be the same, though. Button had spent two months trawling through absolutely every scrap of technology that had ever existed, it seemed, trying to find even the smallest sound bite for them to match to, but there was nothing. Ianto, in his shame of what he had become, had erased everything he could think to find. Even his answer phone. It had depressed the Captain – that one flaw in the almost perfect outcome – but he would hide it from Ianto. He had cried into Diana's arms, but would never let Ianto see his anguish at losing that voice all over again. The Captain still heard it in his dreams, so that had to be enough for now.

Lennie had got most of Ianto's Archiver body working again – enough for him to move his arms and hold himself upright, but his legs were shot and he'd need new ones. He'd refused to have them replaced just yet, until he heard the decision as to whether he qualified as a cyborg or not. When Jack entered the room, his face solemn and eyes sad, Ianto felt his internal circuits heat in sadness. Not enough of him was human, he thought. Then again ... it wasn't that much of a blow. He hadn't been human since Gwen Cooper had ripped his brain from his body.

Jack's face changed so fast Ianto's cybernised eyes nearly missed it. Suddenly it was there, that victorious Harkness grin, and some form of relief came to him.

"I. Qualify?"

"More than that!" Jack beamed, hugging him even though it made no difference. Ianto couldn't feel him. "They've already started laying down plans for your new body!"

"Oh. Good. Do. The. Plans. Sound. Suitable?"

"More than suitable! Fan-bloody-tastic! I mean ... really ... the wonders of technology! You're gonna be made out of titanium!"

"Wonderful. You. Will. Be. Able. To. See. Your. Reflection. In. My. Chest."

"Nawwwwwwww silly! You're getting skin! And eyes that move! They say you can pick your own out once they get you in the skeleton and stick some basic movement muscles on ya. Oo! and they're giving you a fake cardiovascular system so you will have a heartbeat and red plasma flowing! And a thermostat."

"I. Will. Be. Warm?"

"You'll be boiling!"

"How. Will. I. Feel."

"They're going to wire up a nervous system to stimulate certain parts of your brain to feel what you're supposed to be feeling when parts of the system are touched, change temperature, get blocked - pins and needles, Ianto! You'll get pins and needles!"

"Joy." said Ianto.

~*~*~*~

Three months later, and Ianto had been installed in his new skeleton for two weeks. So far they had managed to properly connect the muscles and tendons on most of the left side of his body. He had a new voicebox, but it was temporary until they found one Ianto liked – and it also didn't require vocal chords, a set of which he couldn't have built yet.

Jack loved Ianto's titanium skeleton. It provided him with endless fascination, as well as an interesting "house of mirrors" distraction. Then there were the eyes. The eyes were just two red lights, and Jack couldn't resist poking a little fun at them.

"Whaddup, Terminator?" he asked jovially, sitting down on the stool next to Ianto's bed and watching the technician carefully solder cyber-muscle to Ianto's arm.

"I'm fine." said Ianto, his speech up to normal speed and far more human-sounding. Not Ianto-sounding, but human at least. "Could you help me look through that brochure? I need to pick some eyes ..."

The technician sniggered at Jack and Ianto's banter as they picked out eyes. Many comments like "Aye aye, Captain!" were cheesily exchanged, and Jack helped mainly by holding the brochure and turning the pages as the only usable arm Ianto had was being prodded by the technician. Eventually they came to the end of the brochure and Ianto hadn't settled on any eyes he liked.

"You look." he told Jack. "Pick a pair for me that you like – not the red ones! No ... not the lizard or Gozilla ones either. I can't have a milky eye, Jack. It won't go with my look. Stop calling me Terminator!"

Jack laughed and kissed his shiny Terminator head. He hesitated slightly. The nervous system wasn't complete yet, but Jack could see the tiny wires over Ianto's head now that he was close. "Did you feel that, Ianto?" he asked.

The technician answered for him. "Only his left arm is currently wired up. I've got a couple more muscles to add on to his fingers ... but he'll be able to feel you hold his hand afterwards."

Jack waited seven hours for the technician to finish – she even put a temporary synthetic skin-glove over the muscles so that it would feel more human. She left them alone with a smile and a nod.

"You ready for this?" Jack asked, taking the seat where the technician had been working. Experimentally, Ianto flexed his new fingers, then touched the titanium metal that made up his femur.

"Cold." he said. Jack reached over and moved his head to face him slightly – he had no neck muscles so was constantly left staring straight ahead. But really, no point in being there if Ianto couldn't see him.

"My hand's warm." said Jack, smiling, offering it out.

Ianto flexed his arm, getting used to how it moved a little. He curled his fingers, flexed them out, then tentatively brushed them over Jack's palm. "You are warm." he said, barely audibly. He grabbed Jack's hand squeezing tight, and Jack responded by lifting it to his mouth and kissing it over and over again, letting his tears fall onto it and even nipping at the muscle with his teeth.

"Ow!" said Ianto. "That hurt!" he added, sounding delighted. "I wish I could cry ..."

Jack raised his tear stained face. "Soon you will." he sniffed. "And we can cry together."

"Soppy bastard." said Ianto, but tightened his grip anyway.

~*~*~*~

Another three months, and Ianto had enough parts for the scientists to chance starting up his dummy cardiovascular system. Someone on the way had decided to give him lungs as well. They weren't hooked up to anything or imperative for survival, they just let him feel like he was breathing. His first few deep breaths seemed to struggle, but as his brain got used to the automatic movement it became natural and easy for him. He never stopped breathing.

"Y'know ... when the lungs started working ... it was like part of my brain relaxed. Something was put right again. Like it wasn't suffocating anymore ... d'you think when they get the heart hooked up, it'll be like that again? Two automatic survival signals finally being sent somewhere?" he asked Jack one day. Jack was wheeling him around outside in a wheel chair. He was completed from the collar bone to the groin (apart from his crown jewels) and both his arms were working, but the muscles on his legs weren't going to be added until all the major bits were done. At the moment, Jack was strolling him along a cliff, stopping and turning him so they could look out to sea.

"I think so." was all Jack knew to say. The last six months had been emotional – transferring Ianto's' life-support had been the worst, the brain effectively dying at least three times before it managed to sustain itself in the titanium skull's system. They'd had a couple of scares the last two months with wiring up all the rest of the circuits and functions contained in Ianto's chest, but nothing so serious Jack had a panic attack like the first time.

"I can feel the wind, Jack." smiled Ianto. "On my chest and arms. I can feel it."

"I can't wait until they let you out of the hospital suite."

"They are finicky aren't they?"

"I want to sleep with you in my bed again."

It had been strange talking to the skeleton at first, but Jack's affection didn't waver. As the transformation progressed, and the fake circulatory system was installed and arteries and veins were webbed all over him, he started to look like a corpse decaying backwards. Jack got used to it, and moved on. It was still Ianto, even if the only emotions he could convey at the moment were through his voicebox.

"Go to Button." said Ianto.

"I broke off with him. I told you. Besides, he's with Lennie now."

"I know. But he's still mooning over you. And he's got a nice warm body."

"Hmmm. Warm bodies are overrated. I've got a fetish for bright, shiny titanium at the moment." Jack winked.

Ianto heaved in a breath of air, simply because he could. "Can't wait to smell again. And taste! I know I can't eat ... but putting things on my tongue and tasting them ... and I know you're smirking, and you can stop thinking thoughts like that. It's not happening."

"Heyyyy. You said I was your favourite lollipop!"

"Never did!"

"Did too!"

"Okay. Maybe once."

Jack was satisfied with the confession, and looked back out across the sea. It was bluer than he remembered – probably full of dye to hide the sickening amount of rubbish in it.

"You ... really remember me, don't you Jack?" Ianto asked tentatively.

"Yes."

"You're not just ... pretending you do?"

"The first time we met, you were wearing a black close-fitting jacket, tight jeans and a studded belt. You were bleeding from your left temple and introduced yourself as 'Jones, Ianto Jones'. You beat off a Weevil."

"Yeah ... I remember that, too ..."

"Things ... get murky, don't they?"

"Oh yeah. Murky as hell! I'm terrified about thinking of all the friends I've known and the people I've worked with in case ... well, in case I can't remember them all."

"Do you remember Torchwood?"

"I remember Toshiko and Owen. Myfanwy. Susan?"

"Suzie."

"Yeah. Suzie ..."

They were quiet for a while, watching the waves. The only people who passed were a family of blue slugs, the Daddy slug being about six feet long and wearing a trilby.

"We'll have to go back inside now." said Jack eventually, getting up and taking the handles of the wheelchair. "S'getting dark and I don't want to wheel you into a rock and tip you over the cliff."

"Great. The Deaths of Ianto Jones: Space AIDS then Cliffed. We could write a play about it."

~*~*~*~

The day Ianto had his tongue connected, Jack bought every single flavour and variation of chocolate he could find. He spent hours putting it on Ianto's tongue, listening to his squeal of delight every time the flavours registered in his brain. He couldn't remember the names of most of them and had to be reacquainted with flavours he didn't like, but the fact that he could taste anything at all was sending him giddy – that and the knowledge his new eyes would be coming tomorrow, and his vision would be much improved from the basic cybernetic ones he'd been forced to grow used to.

Jack wouldn't be allowed to see Ianto during the months his facial muscles were being completed, so he was spending every second he could with him until then. It was on Ianto's request that he stayed away, not wanting him to be 'creeped out' by the half-titanium half-flesh head that would be him for three months. He was also fed up of the Terminator jokes.

Despite the process of building a new Ianto being painfully slow, Ianto didn't seem too put out. He was patient, to say the least, sitting still for hours and hours while technicians poked and prodded and soldered and tested and altered and removed and upgraded amongst countless other things. Jack, however, was a constant nag. The technicians and experts had banished him on several occasions, but in usual Harkness style he would manage to charm his way back into the suite and resume telling everyone to hurry up. He did it partly because he was impatient for Ianto to start feeling like his old self – and partly because it made Ianto laugh.

The last day they spent together before Jack had promised to stay away, Ianto froze in the middle of the conversation and went so still the Captain panicked that he might have crashed.

"Ianto? Ianto ... can you hear me?"

"The mobile phone!" he shouted suddenly, moving the covers from his hospital bed as if to get up, then remembering he didn't have any muscle to move his legs with. He groaned. "Jack ... I've thought of something ... I kept my mobile phone. From ... from when I was alive!"

"You are alive." murmured Jack.

"Well ... yeah ... but I'm not totally living yet am I? Anyway ... I kept it ... I dunno why ... I liked the pictures ... I hid it in the Archives! The battery will be dead, but we'll be able to get some info off it, won't we?"

"Tell me where it is, and I'll see if Lennie can do anything ..."

It took Jack three hours to find it – the Archives had been remodelled since Ianto had hidden the phone so its location was a little vague. Lennie had stared at it for a good ten minutes, before declaring she would only get the information off it if Jack let her sell it to a museum. Jack told her where to shove it, but she sulkily set to work on getting the battery going anyway.

Jack lounged on the sofa as she worked, chatting to Button.

"You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, Jack. Honestly. Just ... not getting much sleep." he winked.

Jack smirked. "You and Lennie till going strong then?"

"Yep. Stronger than ever."

"Good. I ... heard you got promoted?"

"Yeah. Head of something. Can't remember what. Sounds made up to me."

Jack nodded. "Yeah. Ianto made it up. Still, you get clearance two and a snazzy black tie. And the pay cheque to go with it."

"Yeah. Still ... nothing near what Saint Lennie's earning. I can't believe ... why did he make _her_ head of Torchwood?"

Shrugging, Jack stood. "She took care of him. Showed him kindness. Chatted to him, even though he was supposedly nothing more than a lowly Archive droid. And she threw up the most when she realised his brain was in there." Button smiled, his eyes drifting dreamily over to Lennie.

Jack went over to her workstation, leaning over her shoulder. The phone was connected and she was rifling through the files on her computer.

"Stupid bloody Ianto." she huffed. "Everything we could have needed to find him is on this bloody phone, and it was hidden right under our noses the entire bloody time!"

Jack sniggered. "We found him, and that's what's important."

She gave him a pointed look.

"Um ... ma'am."

"Too right. Anyways ... ooo! Photographs!"

They flicked through the photos for a while, Jack pointing out the people and places he recognised. "That's Torchwood as it was in our day ... and that's the Cute Suit. My favourite. And that was Myfanwy, our pet pterodactyl. Gwen! Toshiko! Owen! Ohhhh that's his sister, Rhiannon. That was her husband ... can't remember his name ... Martha! Oh my God! Martha! And ... WOAHHHHHH. I know you can't see his face .... but that's definitely Ianto ..."

Lennie sniggered into the back of her hand, tears already building up in her eyes. "H-hey ... Button!" she gasped through fits. Jack wasn't holding up much better, biting his sleeve in an attempt not to collapse into giggles. Button came over, saw the picture and his eyes widened. An eyebrow rose.

"That's Ianto?"

"Y-y-yes!" managed Jack.

"Bloody hell. Wasn't he a big boy!"

Lennie moved the picture onwards. "Y'know ... if you give that picture to the techies, I bet they could get him all ... y'know ... the same down there ..."

"I'll talk to him about it. Come to think of it ... I think I can remember taking that picture ..."

Button snorted, then his expression changed to a sudden look of realisation. "Could phones take videos back then?"

"Er ... yeah. I think so."

"Well ... d'ya think he might have done the standard 'taking the phone around the house while giving a running commentary of all the people around' video?"

"Possibly ... why?"

"... it'll have his voice on it, numbskull."

~*~*~*~

Jack ran all the way down to the labs where everything that was going to make up Ianto's body was being made. They were working on the tiny muscles that would move his eyes around, as well as building tendons for his neck. Bits of throat and fake flesh to line the mouth were progressively nearing completion, too, but Jack knew exactly who he needed to see.

The young lad who was working on Ianto's genitalia spent most of the day bright red, furiously blushing his way through the task at hand. Jack shoved the blown up print out under his nose, watched him turn even redder, then informed him that the picture was the subject who the parts were for, and could he make them identical to that please?

Next he had to wait to speak to the Head Technician. Now that he had a sound file of Ianto's voice, they could feed the information into a droid and have a pair of vocal chords made the mimic the sound.

"Oh, and Captain Harkness?" the Head Technician called after him as he turned to leave. "The eyes arrived this morning. Would you like to look?"

The Technician – Jack really needed to learn his name – produced a large cube-shaped box. He removed the lid, and two eye balls with wires hanging out of the back like optic nerves stared back at them. Jack lifted one out carefully, wearing latex gloves, and inspected the iris.

Jack had paid for these himself, and they had cost a fortune – something Jack appreciated now that he had to earn his own money (Fortunately, Ianto having access to every single scrap of Torchwood significantly helped his pay cheque). The iris was made of tiny sapphires, around which flowed a tiny amount of mercury and peppered with black diamonds to give depth. The eye twinkled at him mischievously, the smooth top coat making it look moist and natural. Jack grinned at the Technician. "Perfect."

~*~*~*

Three months turned into four, and then four into five. Jack had gotten fed up of being good. He decided that he would stop short of shooting people to get to see Ianto sometime soon.

Both Lennie and Button had been allowed to see him, but Ianto made it clear he didn't want Jack anywhere near him until his head had been completed. Button had sneaked a few photographs, so Jack had an idea of how things were coming together, but he missed his conversation the most.

So, full of beans, Jack decided to make his way down to Ianto's hospital suite and blunder his way in. He was stopped halfway there, however, just to be told that the muscles and organs of Ianto's lower half were to begin connection tomorrow, and the facial muscles were not only complete, but a temporary synthetic skin had been placed over to give Ianto an idea of what he'd eventually look like. He had his new eyes in, too.

The Captain didn't need telling twice, and bolted down to Ianto's room. He loitered in the doorway, smiling as he saw Ianto pushing half of a grape in to his mouth.

"Whaddup, Bankrobber?" Jack called. Ianto looked over and scowled at him and took the grape he had been tasting out of his mouth.

"I know my head looks like it's wearing a pair of tights, but it's better than noth – what?"

"Your voice ... they got it ... they got it right ..."

"Oh ... yeah!" Ianto grinned. "I'm kind of over that now. Forgot you didn't know."

Jack sat down in his usual stool. "You look like a scarecrow." he said.

"I know. Small children cry when they see me. I'm not allowed outside until they get my skin on, and they're not doing that until I've got absolutely everything else finished. Not long now, though. A month, maybe. Then I can have body hair again."

"You do look daft without eyebrows. Can I have a grape?"

Ianto offered him the stalk.

"Ianto?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I kiss you?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I'm not allowed to get moisture near my teeth yet. The glue's still setting and they'll drop out."

"You had a grape in there."

"Grapes don't drool all over the place."

"Shurrup." smiled Jack, ruffling his head where the hair was going to be. "Heyyy ... you can feel that now!"

"Yep."

Jack kissed his head. "Let me see your eyes."

Ianto obediently raised his head so that Jack could inspect him. "Perfect. You're just perfect!"

"Ohhh stop it." Ianto couldn't help but smile.

"I can't ... I'm too happy!"

"You're happier than I am, I'd bet."

"Ha! Probably!"

"Especially since you gave them a picture of my erect penis to model my new one from."

"Yeah ... sorry about that. I thought you might appreciate it though ..."

"That was the whole point of you finding the phone." mumbled Ianto. "I forgot about the video."

"They could have made a replica of your penis from the video too." winked Jack, giggling a little as he remembered Lennie's face when she realised what the video was depicting.

Ianto yawned wide, looking a little surprised with himself. "Didn't know I could do that!"he chirruped.

Jack yawned in response. "Just as contagious." he said. "Gaaahhhh! I want you to be finished so we can get away from here!"

"I've spent nearly a year in these four walls ... and _you're_ the one who's impatient to leave?"

Jack gave him a sheepish smile. "I was thinking ... when this is all done ... you, me ... a ship. We could go travelling. See the universe."

"Where would we go?"

"Anywhere!"

"We'll be space gypsies?"

"Tourists."

"You want to go ... with me?"

"Yes with you!"

"Oh ... okay then. We'll see how things go ... how much it'll cost ..."

"Screw the cost! All money's electronic these days ... you could just make up a few numbers and we'll be zillionaires."

"That's fraud."

"Only if they guy in charge doesn't know."

"What happened to your moral compass this last millennia? It's like you never had one!"

"Ianto Jones! Are you suggesting my needle is dysfunctional?"

Ianto smiled and shook his head. "Woe to me. The King of Innuendo is back ..."

~*~*~*~

Jack was in a department store, picking out an off-the-shelf suit for Ianto to wear while they went shopping properly. He had no clothes – he hadn't really had a body to hide behind them – so Jack had volunteered to wander into the city and find something wearable. Fashion had changed a lot over the last thousand years, but as always, it wasn't difficult to find a simple grey suit, white shirt and red tie. Jack picked out some plain silver cufflinks and leather belt with a pewter buckle, too. Just simple things that Ianto could wear on his first day topside in over half a year.

Today, he would be complete. They were just adding finishing touches now – moles on the skin, a sprinkle of freckles across the nose; the tiniest blush in pale Welsh skin. Each hair had been individually inserted into his body, from his head to his eyebrows to the bottom of his legs. His chest was wonderfully fuzzy again, and Jack had had to tell him to stop pulling at it when he'd caught him doing so for the fifth time. He was little worried that Ianto kept doing things to himself that purposefully hurt, but decided not to mention anything until he was fully functional and living with Jack, as they had arranged. Ianto would remain at Torchwood for six months while he was monitored: then he and Jack were free to do whatever they pleased.

Jack approached the reception area of Torchwood Three, boxes and bags in hand, and smiled cheerfully at Josh behind the desk. He greeted his colleagues with 'Good Mornings!' and paused to give Diana a wave and hold up his bags to show her where he'd been. Then, he was off and away down to Ianto's room, ready to show him his new clothes.

"I keep forgetting I can walk." mused Ianto, smiling with his newly-painted lips. They'd had a gloss put over them to make them seem constantly moist, and now that he was complete and his thermostat was working, they were warm too. "I spent about an hour in bed this morning desperate to go outside before remembering I can actually walk out of here myself."

"You went outside without me?"

"I got halfway to the doors and changed my mind." he said, shrugging on his new shirt. He batted away Jack's hands trying to do the buttons up for him, wanting to show off the dexterity of his new fingers. "Love the cut of the shirt, Jack." he said appreciatively. Jack beamed, handing him his trousers.

"I hate helping people get dressed. It's particularly depressing."

Ianto smiled and fastened the buttons on his trousers, reaching for his tie. He ran it through his fingers, feeling the cool silk. He turned to look at himself in a mirror. "I look exactly like me. A bit younger ... but ... I mean ... I'm just grateful to look human ... but ... people will think I _am_ human ..."

Jack put his arms around him from behind, relishing the contact. Ianto didn't really let Jack near him so often. Tentatively, Jack lowered his lips to his neck, brushing the now warm skin with a hint of moisture. He smiled as he saw the Adam's apple move when Ianto let out a soft moan, and Jack took that as a hint to continue. He pressed his lips gently to the sensitive skin, pressing the network of cyber-nerves underneath and knowing that Ianto could feel the contact.

Ianto elbowed him gently, looping his tie around his head. "More on that later." he said, smiling a little and carefully weaving the tie. He paused for a second, back-tracked, then undid the whole thing and started again. Growling in frustration, he tossed the length of silk aside. "I don't want to wear a tie. I've changed my mind." he said huffily.

Jack moved and picked up the tie, turning Ianto to face him and forcing him to be still. "It's been a while since you've done this, huh?" he asked gently, pulling the ends of the tie to the right length. Ianto nodded and sniffed, and Jack very soon got the confirmation that Ianto's tear-ducts were working. They were part of an aqua system that worked around Ianto's head, providing moisture in his mouth and tears if they were needed. It needed topping up every now and then, but otherwise it made Ianto feel more like a human being.

Weaving the knot slowly so that Ianto could see and remember it, Jack carefully tied up the tie the way Button had shown him especially for this moment. Jack had had a feeling the knowledge would come in useful. "There we go!" he admired, turning Ianto to look at himself.

"Thanks." he sniffed.

Jack dabbed away his tears with a tissue. "Careful ... don't want to have to top up your water supply already, do we?"

Shrugging on his jacket, Ianto made sure his arm went through his sleeve quite too fast and collided neatly with Jack's cheek. He chuckled, buttoned up and pulled the door open, ready for his first walk outside.

~*~*~*~

It had been a busy day, and Jack was tired. Ianto had been to about twenty different tailors before finding one he liked, and then spent about three hours picking out designs and colours being measured up. They went to eat at a little bistro, and while Jack wolfed down the food, Ianto settled for just popping things into his mouth and tasting them. There was a tray inside him that would catch any food he did choose to swallow, but he didn't feel confident enough within himself to be able to open up his chest every night, take it out, clean it and put it back.

Jack had hesitated a little before holding his hand as they walked down the street, but before long he had his arm around Ianto's shoulders and Ianto's arm clinging to his waist. Ianto bought about seven pairs of new shoes and also some red plimsolls. Jack had given them an incredulous look, but it was soon wiped away when Ianto explained. "My wife ... Rosemary ... she looked at a couple of pictures of the old days ... she said I should have worn plimsolls ... apparently, I have strong, manly ankles."

Smiling, Jack squeezed his hand. He understood.

Throughout the day, only one person recognised that Ianto was in anyway cybernised, and that was the tailor who had been close enough to hear the tiny mechanic whine of his muscles working. Even so, he hadn't clocked that it wasn't only his arms that were cybernised, and commented on how realistic his hands looked and moved, and also mentioned how well they'd managed to get the skin colour to match his natural tone.

Ianto was pleased.

When they returned to Jack's room, where both Jack and Ianto were going to be living for the next six months, they collapsed at opposite ends of the sofa and threw their heads back in exhaustion. Finally, Jack sidled closer to him, and put an arm around his shoulders.

"Wanna cuddle on the bed for a bit?" he asked.

"Are you sure?"

Jack felt a little taken aback. "Y'know ... the fact you're a cyborg ... I don't actually give a shit. I'd have asked you to come and cuddle if you were still the big scary Archiver."

"Oh." was all Ianto could say. "Let's go to bed then."

They held each other, lying down on the bed, until Jack was so hungry his stomach was rumbling so loud it disturbed the conversation. He ordered food to be brought to the room, and sat on the floor as he ate it. Ianto was allowed to taste as much of it as he wanted, and also tried a sip of coffee but had to spit it away in disgust. Far too burnt.

When he had finished, Jack pushed the plate aside and cuddled up to Ianto again. He nuzzled his neck, and felt his stiffen in anticipation. "Can I kiss you?" Ianto asked.

"You don't even need to ask." smiled Jack.

Ianto reached out, his fingertips brushing hair out of the Captain's eyes and gently caressing his cheekbone. He moved forward, placed a hand on a shoulder, and pulled Jack towards him as their lips met for the first time in over a thousand years.

Jack felt a million explosions of joy charging through his body, eagerly allowing Ianto's coffee-flavoured tongue into his mouth and stroking it with his own. He tried to control his hands, but they soon found themselves squeezing Ianto's arse as he pressed their hips together. Jack broke away, smiling. He gave a pointed look southwards. "Everything's working, then?"

Ianto gave him that wicked smile. "Better than I could ever have hoped."


End file.
